


^ 






-f 



^0* 



; . o 




N > A* *!*fl£> 



V\ 



J ,^' 



- 









, o. 



(V "^r A*" 

^ , v 












^V 



'^ t S* 



» 0° 







.# V 






<* 



s. 



,0 V "O A 



W 









10 o 



v v 



A^ 

fev* 

°* 



V 



, ^> • • „ o «. 

A ' 










s? % 4 



o . » * .0 O ' . . s . ' > 










J "1 







5 « 



THE 
FEUDAL AGE 



BY 

ROSCOE LEWIS ASHLEY 

Head of the 

Department of History and Economics. 

Pasadena High School. 



WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Pasadena 

Pasadena High School 

1913 



AS 



% 



Copyright 1913 
by R. L. Ashley 



©CI.A347810 



*t 



iii 



To 

The Students of Pasadena 



PREFACE. 

The Pasadena course in "Ancient History" includes not only 
the conventional course to 800 A. D., but a continuation of that 
course to the close of the Crusades. This little book has been 
written to cover important phases of the period from Charlemagne 
to 1^70. It does not include all of the material which was prepared 
originally on the Feudal Age, since the discussion of the rise of 
the nations and the study of civilization in the later Feudal Age 
has been postponed until the second year, being considered in the 
course in modern European history. 

There has been no attempt to cover carefully the events of 
these five centuries. The book is less a narrative than a descrip- 
tion of life and of general changes, with some account of the great 
personages of the period. The author hopes that the book is suf- 
ficiently long to show that the Feudal Age was essentially different 
from any other in history; he cannot expect that it will make clear 
to the student that medieval spirit which animated society during 
the Feudal Age. 

The author's thanks are due to many for help and suggestions. 
Among these are Professor Jacob N. Bowman of the University of 
Washington, Professor James T. Shotwell of Columbia Univer- 
sity, and the author's colleagues, especially Miss Leonora Schop- 
bach and Miss Katherine J. Kenaga and Mr. W. R. Morris. None 
of these is responsible for errors or for the partial and misleading 
statements which are inevitable in so brief an account. The au- 
thor will be glad to receive criticisms from teachers who use the 
pamphlet. 

Pasadena, June, 1913. 



VI 



.MAI'S AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

A medieval castle (Rheinstein; Frontispiece 

The Treaty of Verdun (843) Facing 1 

Viking ship l § 

A tournament in the later Feudal Age Facing 26 

Attack on a walled town — later Feudal Age Facing 28' 

English soldiers with armor and weapons Facing 30 | 

Armor of a prince Facing 32 

Dress of a lady Facing 32 

Plan of a manor or feudal estate 36 

Nun-priest (Canterbury pilgrim) 44 

Benedictine abbot 45 

Europe about 1000 A. D 49 

Carcossonne (Type of a walled town) Facing 5; 

Monastery of St. Francis, Assisi, Italy Facing 

Dominican friar 6q 

Knight templar , 74 

St. Mark's, Venice Facing 76 

Belfry of Bruges .Facing 82 

Streets of a medieval town (Rothenburg) Facing 82 



: 



Vll 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

WESTERN EUROPE AFTER CHARLEMAGNE 
he Break-up of Charlemagne's Empire 

he Barbarian Invasions 

rvAsioNs of England 



9 
16 



CHAPTER II 
LIFE OF THE PEOPLE UNDER FEUDALISM. 



he Feudal System 

[fe of the Nobles 

he Common People Under Feudalism 



21 
32 
32 



CHAPTER III 



THE CHURCH OF THE FEUDAL AGE 



he Church and the People .... 

he Temporal Power of the Church 

he Investiture Strife . . . 

he hohenstaufen emperors and the popes 

he Church During the Later Feudal Age 



42 
47 
5i 
55 
58 



CHAPTER IV 
THE AGE OF THE CRUSADES 



onditions Affecting the Crusades 68 

he Eight Crusades 76 

esults of the crusades 76 

he Rise of the Towns 81 

hronological table 86 

»DEX 89 



THE FEUDAL AGE 

CHAPTER I 

ESTERN EUROPE AFTER CHARLEMAGNE 
(800-1066 A. D.) 

The Break-up of Charlemagne's Empire 

1. Charlemagne the Emperor. — It was Christmas day Crowning of 
in the year 800 A. D. The great church of St. Peter's at 
Rome was thronged with worshippers ; townsmen, German 
knights and nobles, Italian prists and bishops. But the cen- 
tral figure of all was Karl the Great, King of the Franks, 
better known as Charlemagne, ruler of wide dominions from 
the forests of central Germany to the Bay of Biscay and 
from the North Sea to southern Italy. As Karl rose, after 
a few moments of silent prayer, the pope, placing on his 
head a golden crown, proclaimed him Emperor, and the mul- 
titude shouted, "To Charles Augustus, crowned the great 
and peace-giving Impcrator of the Romans, be life and vic- 
tory I" 1 

In the centuries to come, the central figures in this scene. The pope and 
the pope and the emperor, were to be the conspicuous per- theem P eror - 
sonages of western Europe ; the one, spiritual head of a 

"Charlemagne claimed to be the successor not only of the 
Caesars but of the Eastern Roman Empire as well, since the head of 
the Eastern Empire at this time was a woman. The Eastern Roman 
Empire, with Constantinople as its capital, lasted as a separate empire 
until 1453, when the city was captured by the Ottoman Turks. A 
glimpse of this empire at the time of the Crusades is given in sec- 
tions 69 and 70. The western empire, revived by Charlemagne in 
800 and re-established as the Holy Roman Empire of the German 
Nation by Otto I in 962, could claim to be an empire as long at is 
held part of Italy, that is, to the death of Frederick II in 1250. It 
lasted as a German kingdom, with the name Holy Roman Empire, 
until the time of Napoleon (1806). 



The empire of 

the Car 



The Germanic 

empire. 



Government 
through counts 
and "missi 
dominici." 



10 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



great catholic, cr universal, church; the other, the chie 
among the temporal princes, revered because of his positio: 

if ni A f< t his power. 

2. The Old Empire and the New. — The old Romai 
Empire of the Caesars had included most of the civilize' 
world. It was a Mediterranean empire, stretching from the 
Pillars of Hercules to the borders of Persia. Although it in- 
cluded hundreds of diverse races or peoples, it had a fairly 
uniform civilization throughout its length and breadth. The 

tern half used one language, Greek; the western half 
s] oke 1 atin. This empire i f the Caesars had great cities, 
carried on extensive trade — not only by way of the Medit- 
erranean, but over the famous Roman roads; — and enjoyed 
the advantages of culture and wealth. 

The new empire of the Germans barely touched the Med- 
iterranean, though it covered most of Western Europe. Its 
subjects were chiefly of one race, the Teutonic, but they had 
almost less in common than the citizens of the old Roman 
empire. They spoke hundreds of dialects and lived a free, 
independent, out-door life, being interested in hunting 
and warfare, not in art and commerce. 

3. How Charlemagne Ruled His Empire. — The Cae- 
sars held absolute sway over tens of millions of subjects who 
were accustomed to being governed by arbitrary princes 
kings, but Charlemagne governed a different type of men. 
rude, warlike and independent. The Germans followed their 
local chiefs or counts and gave but half-hearted obedience 
to a distant king, even if he bore the exalted title of em- 
peror. Charlemagne did not destroy the power of the counts, 
but he united the German people in his empire by selecting 
as counts in each "count}" the most powerful leader who 
would be loyal to him. This count might be removed by the 
emperor and the office did not descend from father to son 
To keep the counts dependent on the emperor, Charlemagne 
sent out each year two officials, called missi dominici. who 
reported the acts of the counts, and called assemblies of the 
people. 






CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE 11 

4. Why Charlemagne's Empire Fell to Pieces. — Lack of union 

. among the 

,In Charlemagne's time and for centuries afterward people Germans, 
loved to think of a great empire with Rome as its center, 
but the real glory of a western Roman empire had departed 
when the Germans invaded Rome in the fifth century, and 

,the empire which existed after Charlemagne was little more 
than a name. There were several reasons why it was impos- 
sible to hold most of Western Europe together in one empire 
Is Charlemagne had done. 

(1) The successors of Charlemagne were ordinarv men, Needof 

*■ ' _ J extraordinary 

and none but an extraordinary man like Charles Martel or emperors. 
his great son Pippin, or his greater gran Ison Charlemagne, 
could combine into one empire so many countries. 

(2) The different countries and peoples of Charle- Divers p e °» le ^ 

culture and 

magne's empire had little in common. The cultured Romans dialects, 
were different from their neighbors the Lombards. Southern 
"France" was much more refined than northern "France" ; 
and the inhabitants of both were different from the ignorant 
Saxons and Bavarians who lived beyond the Rhine. These 
.people spoke several different languages and almost num- 
berless dialects. 

(3) The Franks followed the Teutonic custom of divid- Division of 

, ii - t kingdoms. 

ing a king's realm among all of his sons. In this way many 
kingdoms took the place of the empire. 

(4) Even before Charlemagne's time, the great nobles Poweroftht ' 

v ' & & nobles. 

were almost as powerful as kings. As we have seen, Charle- 
magne had kept them subordinate to him, but, after his 
death, those nobles, and even the agents whom he appointed 
to represent him in different parts of his empire, made them- 
selves practically independent. 

(5) A thousand years ago, there were few roads in Im P° rtance of 

local govern - 

western Europe, so that people stayed at home. There was ment. 
very little trading clone because there was little money and 
merchants were likely to be robbed on the road. Each local- 
ity came to look after all of its own interests, especially after 
the raids of Norsemen, Magyars (Hungarians) and Sara- 



12 



THE FEUDAL 



The oaths of 
Strasshurjr. 



Division of 

Charlemaprne's 

empire. 



Importance 
of this treaty. 



cens (Sec-. 7-11) compelled every community to ^protect 
itself. 

5. The Beginnings of National Languages. — Charle- 
magne left his empire to his son Lewis the Pious, but Lewis 

could not keep his own sons or the nobles from seizing th* 
territory and the power which lie was su] 
emperor. After Lewis' death, his younger sons, Charles the 
Bald and Lewis the German, made war on the elder, Lothair, 
who had been proclaimed emperor. In the oaths of Strass- 
burg in 842 they swore to support each other against Lo- 
thair. Lewis the German swore before the troops of Charles 
in the language of the west Franks, the words showing the 
Latin origin of the language spoken by the people west of 
the Rhone and the Seine. The oath hegan as follows: "Pro 
Deo anuir et pro christian poblo et nastro cominun salva- 
uient. . . .' M Charles took the same oath before the German 
troops of his brother Lewis. "/// Codes minna ind in thes 
christianes folches ind miser bedhero gealtnissi. . . "* : In a 
sense these oaths of Strassburg represent the beginning of 
two great national languages, the French — the language of 
the west Franks — and the German — the language of the 
East Franks. 

6. The Treaty of Verdun. (843). — The next year the 
three brothers agreed at Verdun on a division of Charle- 
magne's empire. Charles the Bald was to have all of the 
territory west of the Rhone and a line drawn from Lyons 
north to the mouth of the Rhine. Lewis the German was to 
have the eastern part, east of the Rhine and north of the 
Alps. Emperor Lothair received a center strip including 
what is now Holland, Belgium, the Rhenish provinces, Swit- 
zerland and, of course, Italy, since he was emperor, and the 
emperor must have Rome, the old capital of the empire. 

This treaty has had a greater influence on history than any 



'Out of love for God and for the good of the Christian people 
and our own salvation. . . 



? 



THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 13 

other ever made. 1 The territory of Charles, being compact, 
and being inhabited by people of somewhat similar language 
and race, developed later into France. That of Lewis, for 
similar reasons, formed one country now known as Ger- 
many. That of Lothair possessed no territorial unity, and in- 
cluded people of very diverse races. It could not become a 
Single country (although the lower half later became known 
as Italy) while its peculiar shape, and its position between 
France and Germany, made it the disputed strip of the later 
centuries. A great deal of medieval and modern history is 
taken up with the contest over this strip from Rome north 
to the mouth of the Rhine river. 

The Barbarian Invasions 

7. The Invasions in General. — Charlemagne had spent invasions under 

,. , r . <- i • • Charlemaprne. 

several campaigns defending the frontiers ot his empire 
from the barbarians. On the east he had driven back the 
Slavs, and the Hungarians or Magyars. Beyond the Pyr- 
enees he had established a "buffer state" against the Sara- 
cens which is known as the Spanish March or mark. On 
the northern coast he encountered pirates from the Scandi- 
navian peninsulas. Against all of these invaders Charle- 
magne had been successful, but later rulers found the task 
greater than they could manage. 

8. Slavs, Hungarians and Saracens. -Large bands of Protection of 
Slavs and fierce companies of wild Hungarian horsemen har- bo ^ der 
rassed the eastern borders of Germany. Villages were plun- 
dered and destroyed, crops were burned and the people were 

in constant terror of raids. The frontier territories of Char- 
lemagne's empire were abandoned, and, along the new fron- 
tier, farther west, there arose a series of "buffer states," 
called marks, ruled by strong dukes that revelled in the bor- 
der warfare, and protected from invasion the country still 

a By the treaty of Mersen (870) most of the territory of Lothair 
and Lewis was reunited and the "empire" included most of this com- 
bined territory, that is, Germany and Italy, during a large part of 
the Feudal Age. 



14 i ill-. FEl UAL A< \E 

farther west. Austria and Brandenburg, the central state 01 
that kingdom which we now call Prussia, were originally 
rmrks of this kin ', while the name of Denmark shows that 
that country was originally the Danish mark. The rulers of 
these border states naturally were allowed great privileges 
and were practically independent of king or emperor. 
Saracens and T ,, e t(nvns ct] t p e Mediterranean shores were plundered 

Normans in ' 

Sicily and itaiy. by Saracens durihg this period of disorder. These Saracens 
were Mohammedans whose conquests had extended from 
Arabia across Northern Africa and into Spain. Their 
quests had been checked at Tours in K ranee by Charles Mar 
tel in 732 A. D. Italy suffered greatly from their attacks, 
and at one time the Saracens came even to the gate- cf 
Rome, plundering St. Peter's, which at that time was out 
side of the walls of the city. Sicily was conquered by the 
Saracens and held by them for two centuries until bands of 
Normans from Northern France drove out the Saracens and 
established a Norman state in the island. 1 . 

Method of g The Norsemen. — The really important invasion 

Norse invasion. J l 

the ninth and tenth centuries were made by Norsemen called 
Vikings, large, blonde, fierce seamen from the Scandinavian 
peninsulas. Driven from home by their political enemies 
large numbers of these longdiaired warriors from the north 
-wept down upon the European coasts in their swift boats 
propelled by sails and oars. Each boat with its leader an 1 
band of perhaps fifty men acted independently. Finding a 
town undefended they would hide their boat, attack unex- 
pectedly, seize all possible booty and l)e away before heln 
could come. Monasteries and churches were especial objects 
of prey because they contained more wealth than any homes 
or shops. Tn winter these pirates and raiders returned to 
their northern abodes to enjoy the booty which they had 
-eized. 

'This Norman invasion was the beginning of a movement by 
which Southern Italy was brought again into the whirl of inter- 
national politics, jnst as it had been involved in the conflict between 
Greece, Carthage and Rome fifteen centuries earlier. 



T, 



THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS 



15 



he Norsemen extended their raids and conquests over all Extent of 

Norse 

i j northern Europe. They settled on the islands north of invasions. 
'Scotland, and in Iceland. They made voyages to Greenland 
land "Vinland" 1 several centuries before any other navigators 




VIKING DRAGON SHIP' 

dared to cross tie Atlantic. One of their leaders, Rurik, 
gained control of the western part of Russia. His succes- 
sors ruled that territory for several centuries. 

10. The Norsemen in France. — Meanwhile raids contin- Resuitsof raids 
tied along the northern coast of France and the Netherlands. 
At one time the Norsemen besieged Paris for seven months, 
until the emperor bought them off by giving them permis- 
sion to pillage other territory. This act shows the weaknes- 
of the emperor and the kings, who could not protect their 
subjects. Everywhere the people, the towns, and the lesser 
nobles sought the help and protection of the most powerful 
nobles of the neighborhood. Not only did the power of the 
nobles increase, but castles were built at all exposed points, 
and all coast towns built walls for defense. 



Finland was in North America, but the exact location has 
never been determined. 



16 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Normandy. -j-]ie raid- along the coast of n irthem France were no 

stopped until a strong Morse leader called Rollo was askc 
by the king of France to protect the northern part of tha 
country from other enemies. Rollo thereupon embrace* 
Christianity and was made duke of that territory, hencefortl 
known as Normandy. These Normans were good fighters 
able rulers and the most faithful of the Chur :h's adherents 
"It is difficult to believe that the Norsemen could have treat- 
ed those they conquered with much kindness; but it is cer 
tain that serfdom soon disappeared from the soil of Nor- 
mandy, that the life of the husbandman was happy, [and] 
that agriculture prospered." 1 



Invasions of England 



Alfred the 
Great and 
the Danes. 



Kul. of Alfred. 



11. Alfred the Great. — A few years before the Norse- 
men, or Danes, came to England, seven petty English king- 
doms had been united (827 A. D.) by Egbert, a friend of 
Charlemagne, and King of Wessex. In one sense, therefore, 
the Danes found a united England if not a united people. 
They were met by the youngest and ablest of Egbert's 
grandsons, Alfred the Great. Alfred was not successful at 
first. In fact, he was a fugitive at one time. He finally de- 
feated his enemies, having learned the location of their cam] 
by entering it disguised as a harper, so the legend relate- 
Guthrum, the Danish leader, later accepted Christianity an< 
agreed to remain north and east of a line following the ok 
Roman road, afterward known as Watling Street, from Lon- 
don to Chester. The territory of the Danes was called the 
Dane law and the successors of Alfred spent a century try- 
ing to regain it. 

Alfred ruled with great wisdom, establishing a much bet- 
ter government than England had had and arranging a bet- 
ter written law. He was just but strict with those who broke 
his laws. He encouraged schools, brought together great 



'Duruy, "Middle Ages" p. 158. 



Danish 
kingdom. 



INVASIONS OF ENGLAND 17 

scholars, and urged churchmen to study more faithfully. As 
the people coul 1 speak and read only the Saxon language 
the king translated several Latin works for his people. By 
example and by precept he helped to educate his subjects. 
He is the most beloved of English kings. 

12. Cnut and Later Danish Conquests.— A century f n * }aml 

J becomes a part 

after Alfred, new Danish armies invaded England. These ofCnufs 
were not barbarians but the warriors of the great Danish 
king Cnut who wished to include England as well as Den- 
mark and Scandinavia in his great kingdom. The Danes were 
generally successful during the long reign of Ethelred, usu- 
ally called the "unready." During this period the first Eng- 
lish national tax was levied in the form of contributions for 
defense called the "Danegeld." This was levied quite fre- 
quently by the Danes themselves when their King Cnut 
(Canute) was recognized as the regular king of all England. 
Cnut was an able ruler who governed the English as though 
they were his own people. 

Soon after Cnut's death, Edward the Con f esse r, of the ^ dward *** 

Confessor and 

line of Alfred, was recognized as king. Edward was a mild the succession 
man who surrounded himself with Norman nobles and fol- t ° theEns:llsh 

throne. 

lowed Norman customs. When he died his minister, Harold, 
was recognized as king, but the throne vas contested by 
William. Duke of Normandy. William was related to Ed- 
ward, and claimed that the latter had selected him as his 
successor. 

13. William the Conquerer — William had already dis- Con <»'" SB t< rf 
tmguished himself in his little duchy of Normandy as a brave 
soldier, a skillful statesman and a born ruler of men. As 
soon as he learned of the death of Edward the Confessor, 
William prepared to enforce his claim by bringing to Eng- 
land a large force of archers and mailed horsemen. His 
army met that of Harold at Senlac near Hastings (1066). 
Harold's force was much smaller but was protected by the 
hill on which his men were drawn up. Time after time the 
Normans were repulsed, until, pretending to flee, they drew 
Harold from his strong position. Harold fell, his eye and 



England. 



18 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



William's rule. 
New form of 
leudali-sm. 



I)iv:s o 

Charlen acre's 
empire. 



Barbarian 
invasions. 



Invasion of 
England. 



brain pierced by an arrow, and his army was defeated. The 
way was LlOVt open to William, who was crowned king of 
England on Christmas day, 1066, in Westminster. 

William defeated all who rebelled against his authority 
and ruled England with a strong hand. He took the lands of 
his enemies, distributing them among Norman nobles, but le 
refused to give any noble extensive possessions in any one 
place, so that no noble could rival the king in power, as the 
dukes of France and Germany rivalled their king and em- 
] eror. William made every landholder in England take oath 
( the Salisbury oath ) that he would serve and obey the King 
before he served or obeyed anyone else. This was a form 
of feudalism very different from that in use on the continent 
(Sees. 16, 20), a form which made the English kings real 
rulers of England, while the French king and the German 
emperor were often figureheads. This Norman invasion or 
"conquest" also brought England into closer relations with 
the trade, the politics and the religion of the re^t of Europe-. 
It is one of the most important facts in English history. 

14. Summary. — We have considered in the preceding 
sections the external facts and territorial changes in the fir t 
half of the "Feudal Age." We find that there are three 
changes to be remembered. (1) In 843. by the Treaty o\ 
Verdun, Charlemagne's empire was divided into a west part, 
which later became France, an east part, which later devel- 
oped into Germany, and an intermediate strip from Rome 
to the North Sea, which was disputed for centuries, and in 
which four countries have since been created, Holland. Bel- 
gium, Switzerland and Italy. 

(2) The barbarians who invaded western Europe in the 
ninth and tenth centuries were not migrating peoples as in the 
fourth and fifth centuries, but leaders who made raids, al- 
though sometimes they afterward settled down as border rul- 
ers. The Norsemen, Saracens. Hungarians and Slavs took 
part in these raids. 

(3) In England the early Norse or Danish raids were 
repelled by Alfred, one half of England being granted to the 



WESTERN EUROPE AFTER CHARLEMAGNE 19 

Danes. Later, England was annexed to the Danish Kingdom 
by Cnnt, and in 1066 was conquered by William, Duke of 
Normandy. 

General References 

Robinson, History of Western Europe, 77-103. 
Munro, A History of the Middle Ages, 1-85. 
Duruy, History of the Middle Ages, 139-186. 
Ogg, Source Book of Medieval History, 108-195, 2 33- 2 44- 
Thatcher and Schwill, Europe in the Middle Age, 126-155, 194- 
214. 

Topics 

The Battle of Senlac : Robinson, Readings in European History, 

I, 224-229 ; Creasy, Decisive Battles of the World, Chapter VIII. 
The Coronation of Charlemagne: Robinson, Readings in Euro- 
pean History. I, No. 56; Thatcher, Europe in the Middle Age, 125- 
133 ; Duncalf and Krey, Parallel Source Problems in Medieval His- 
tory, 3-26. 

Studies 

1. Charlemagne, the Man. Robinson, Readings in European His- 
tory, I, 126-128. 

2. The Division of Charlemagne's Empire. Emerton, Medieval 
History, 26-35. 

3. Reasons for the disruption of Charlemagne's Empire. Adams, 
Civilization during the Middle Ages, 170-177. 

4. The Norsemen besiege Paris. Robinson, Readings, I, 163-168. 

5. Feasts and entertainments of the Norsemen. Du Chaillu, The 
J 'iking Age, II, 274-284. 

6. Ornaments of Norse women. Du Chaillu, The Viking Age, 

II, 301-331- 

7. The Norsemen in America. Fiske, Discovery of America, I, 

I57-I7L 

8. Rollo the Norman. Jewett, The Story of the Normans, 30-51. 

9. Saxon art. Traill and Mann (eds.), Social England, I, 278-284. 

10. The home of a Saxon noble. Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter III. 

11. Alfred and the Danes. Harding, The Story of England, 39- 
49; Cheyney, Readings in English History, No. 40. 

12. Alfred's interest in education. Ogg, Source Book of Medieval 
History, 185-193. 

13. The rule of Cnut the Dane. Lee, Source Book of English 
History, Nos. 41-43. 



20 THK FEUDAL AGE 

Questions 

i. Poinl out "ii the map the boundaries of the Roman Empire of 
Augustus; those of Charlemagne's empire. 

_>. Why was Karl called the Great? 

.}. What was the difference in character and in spirit between the 
people ruled by Augustus and the Germans in the days of Charle- 
magne ? 

4. Explain each "t" the reasons mentioned in paragraph (5) of 
sec. 4. 

5. In the oaths of Strasshurg which is more like Latin? Which 
is more like modern German" Why should the French people of to- 
day have a Latinized or Romance language, when the Germans have 
not? 

6. Draw a map showing the boundaries agreed upon in the Treaty 
of Verdun. Compare those boundaries with the boundaries of the 

'different countries of western Europe at present. What was the im- 
portance of the treaty? 

7. What was the importance of the "marks"? Why should the 
rulers of the marks have had more power than other dukes or counts? 
What three countries have developed out of these marks? 

8. Can you explain what we owe to the Danes and the Normans? 
Q. In what three ways did Alfred do a great work for England? 
10. Why was the battle of Hastings or Senlac one of the decisive 

battles of the world? 

n. What was the importance of William's demand that every land 
holder in England should swear allegiance to him first and to the 
neighboring duke or baron afterward? If you cannot tell now, study 
sees. 16 and 20, and then answer the question. 

12. What was the importance of cSoo A. D. ? of 843? of 1066? 



CHAPTER II 



Life of the People Under Feudalism. 
15. Increase of the Power of the Nobles after loss of 

A royal power. 

Charlemagne. — Even Charlemagne had some trouble in 
keeping the more powerful liobles in subjection. After bis 
death, the nobles grew stronger because the emperors were 
weak, and the kings quarrelled with the emperor, with their 
nobles or with other kings. Throughout western Europe a 
great lord or noble almost always had more power in his 
own duchy or county than his king or emperor. 

This change was inevitable. The people cared less about Need of power- 
great kings than they did about powerful local leaders. There 
were no roads or other easy means of communication, so 
that each locality was obliged to look to itself for defense 
and for its laws, since it was shut off from its neighbors. 
Dangers were pressing, not only on the border, where Norse- 
men, or Hungarians, or Saracens raided and plundered, but 
in the interior, where robbers and brigands seized unpro- \j "*fe 
tected travellers and drove the peasants to seek shelter 
within the walls surrounding the nearest castle. 

If the kines could have kept up the national armies which Be * inrnn * sofa 

° ' . feudal army. 

Charles Martel, Pippin and Charlemagne used, they might 
have defended the people and maintained their own author- 
ity in addition, but there was no money for the payment of 
soldiers, so that soldiers must be paid in honors or in land. 
This made these soldiers dependent on the great nobles, not 
on the kings, for the nobles really controlled the land. The 
great nobles of western Europe were not independent, how- 
ever. If they had been, they would have been kings ; and 
Europe would have been divided into many tiny kingdoms 
smaller than Belgium of the present time. 



; iand 
WM granted to 
nobles in ex- 
change for 
M rvice. 



Distribution of 
n noble's land. 



Nob es as 
both ioids 
and vassals. 
Fiefs. 



22 lin: FEUDAL AGE 

The Feudal System 

16. Land Holding under the Feudal System. — 
The nobles did not own this land under their control. The\ 
had been permitted by their king or emperor to use th> 
hinds of their barony, or county, or duchy, because they ha< 
rendered their king some service in the past, or because the) 
promisel to" furnish him a hundred or more warriors ii 
case he needed an army. Theoretically the king was suppos- 
ed to own all of the land, and the nobles recognized him as 
their superior. But as each noble's son held his father's land 
when the noble died, and, as the son possessed the power. 
as ruler, which his father had had, the king was only nomi 
nally the superior of the noble. 

In turn the great noble parcelled 01 t his land among his 
followers. But these lesser nobles again held this land from 
father to son. so that it could not be taken away from them, 
although they did not own it. These lesser nobles in turn 
divided their lands among their followers until finally we 
come to areas so small that they supported only a single 
noble, a knight or horseman 1 . 

17. Lords and Vassals. — If a great noble A allowed 
a lesser noble R to use some of his land, then A was R's 
lord or overlord and B was called A's vassal. A was usual! 
a vassal of the king and B might be the lord of many knight 
among whom his land was divided. All feudal land-holders, 
except those at the top and at the bottom, were therefore 
both lords and vassals, but only persons of noble birth might 
be either lord or vassal. Usually men who could fight held 
chese positions, but women and abbots and bishops some- 
times were lords of feudal dependents. When a noble receiv- 
ed land from his lord, he always called that estate a fief. 
Recause land was held in fiefs, the system was called a sys- 
tem of fiefs or the feudal system. 



• 



J In theory this formed a hierarchy, but in fact there was no such 
symmetry or uniformity in the feudal system, the word system be- 
ing almost a misnomer in consequence. 



THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 23 

18. Homage and Fealty. — When a vassal died, his Process of 

• investiture. 

.eldest son took his place, 1 , doing homage and taking an oath 
of fealty to his lord. The ceremony was impressive. The 
vassal came to the lord accompanied by his retainers. Kneel- 
ing before the lord, without sword or helmet, he placed his 
liands in those of his lord and swore that he would be the 
lord's "man." This was called homage, from the Latin 
"homo," meaning man. Having done homage, the vassal 
,took the oath of "fealty" or faithfulness, promising to ob- 
serve his many obligations as the lord's vassal. The control 
of the fief was then given to him, this act being called "in- 
vestiture." The lord usually handed him a twig or a stone 
or a clod of earth as evidence that the fief had been grant- 
_ed. 

The lord promised to protect the vassal's right to his fief PhS™ 3 of 
from all outsiders, so long as the vassal observed his feudal 
(obligations, and to defend him from all other dangers. 

19. Obligations of the Vassal. — In return for the General, 
granting of the fief and the promise of protection, the vas- 
sal was obliged to help his lord in several ways. 

(1) The vassal owed military service. When the lord ' ltary servict ' 
demanded, the vassal must appear fully armed with his re- 
tainers to help his lord in his private wars against his ene- 
mies or in the larger conflicts to which his lord might be 
summoned by his king. 2 

(2) He owel court service. He must help his lord by court service 
being present at court ceremonies, for the lord must not lack 
attendants. He must aid in the decision of suits that were 

ir rhe right of the eldest son to the whole of a father's estate is 
called primogeniture. The adoption of primogeniture instead of 
the division of the father's estate among all of his sons was very 
important, especially in the case of the king, for it prevented the 
kingdoms and the duchies from heing cut up into numerous small- 
er kingdoms and duchies. 

-Military service was usually limited by agreement or custom to 
40 or 60 days and ordinarily did not involve service outside of the 
kingdom. Compare with militia service in the United States at 
present. 



24 



THK FEUDAL AGE 



Feudal aids. 



ll .lues. 



The king as 

duke of his 
own duchy and 
overlord of 
all other 
dukes in 
his kingdom. 



The real 
rulers were 
those who 
levied taxes 
and controlled 
courts 



Real rulers in 
France and 
England 



brought before the lord's court and must give his help whe 
the lord asked his advice. 

(3) Feudal aids must be given when the lord was mad 
prisoner, (in the form of ransom), when the lord's eldes 
son was knighted and when his eldest daughter was mar 
1 ied. 

(4) Among other obligations was included that of en 
tertaining his lord and retinue on a journey* When a soi 

• • it* 

succeeded his father, rehef was paid ; alicnan&n was due i 
a fief was transferred to another vassal. If the fief return 
ed to the lord, it was said to have escheated. The Ion 
might also exact payments from a ward, or from a woman j 
dependent if she wished to marry the man of her choice 
rather than the man whom the lord selected. 

20. Government Under the Feudal System. — Tht 
king of each country was always a great noble who held ex- 
tensive territories of his own, which he distributed among 
lesser nobles. That is. the king of France was al>o Duke of 
Francia ; Francia or the Isle of France being an area around 
Paris somewhat smaller than the Duchy of Normandy which 
the Normans had established (Sec. 10) in the northern part 
of France. His power was greater at first as Duke of Fran- 
cia than as King of France, for he had real power in Fran- 
cia and only nominal power as overlord of the other dukes 
or great nobles of his kingdom, France. 

A great noble might, however, be the duke of extensive 
territories, and the overlord of other powerful nobles, with- 
out himself being powerful in his own duchy. If he could 
not control His ZHissals, he was, like the king, in an exalted 
position, but with little power. The real ruler of any terri- 
tory was the noble ivho held the courts that controlled life 
and death — that is, those courts from which there was no 
appeal to a higher court — the noble who could levy imposts 
on travellers or collect revenue from his people, for if a 
noble had both of these powers, then the people of his terri- 
tory were really his subjects. 

In France, the real rulers were ordinarily the barons wh 



THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 25 

eld their fiefs directly from the dukes, but in England, a? 
we have seen (Sec. 13), William the Conquerer and his 
successors were really the rulers of the entire realm, ah 
' though the barons were powerful enough, as is well known, 
to force King John (1215) to grant their demands in the 
form, the greai Chartei (Magm Carlo). 

Life Of The Nobles. 

21. The feudal Age in General — The Feudal Age The early 

,, . . r r . j r feudal period 

from the ninth to the fifteenth century was a period of 
I force, of disorder and of violence. It was literally an age 

When the strongest took what he could and the weaker 
nobles and the common people protected themselves as best 
they might. A leader who did not excel as a fighter usu- 

: ally gave way to one whose arm was stronger, whose 

" sword-thrust was keener and whose battle ax cut deeper. 

- It was an age when assassination was used frequently to 
rid a noble or prince of his enemies. It was an age when 
treachery abounded and faith was not kept except with the 
strong. Even the Church was disorganized and corrupt 
in the earlier period. Few of its members were able to 
read, and higher churchmen were only a little less unscrupu- 
lous than their near relatives, the great nobles. The rights 
of peasants and women were not deeply respected, al- 
though in the later Feudal Age (1100-1400), a more chiv- 
alrous spirit was shown to noble ladies. The later Feudal Thetetet 
Age was much like the earlier but was less rough and dis- feudal period 
orderly, and is distinguished for knightly adventure,' brave 
deeds and widely-sung romances. It produced the trouba- 
dours and the minnesingers. To it we owe chivalry. In 
it we find great international pilgrimages called crusades. 
In it trade developed, universities were established and 
scholars became more interested in art, in science and in 
the classics. 

22. The Castle.— The earliest "castle", having been Earlyc astie* 
built to ward off wandering horsemen or repel invading 
Norsemen, was a wooden building, strong Hit simple, of 



26 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Description of 
ailatei castle . 



Scene in th< 
srreat hall. 



few rooms and practically without comforts. This strong 
house stood frequently between two court-, one of which 
was a place of entertainments, the other a barnyard, and 
was surrounded by huts which sheltered the peasants in 
this time of danger, the whole village being surrounded 
by a stockade. 

In the time of William the Conqueror real castle life 
may he said to have begun. Huge towers, called donjons 
(or keeps), guarded the entrance to a court-yard which 
was unclosed by walls. A deep ditch called a moat sur- 
rounded the fortification. None could enter the castle with- 
out crossing the drawbridge — which was raised at night 
or against enemies — and passing through the double gates 
of the donjon. Enemies were kept at a distance by cross- 
bowmen stationed at the narrow slit-like windows, or were 
driven hack by an avalanche of stones or hot metal from 
above, if thev forced the outer gate of the tower. There 
were dungeons below for prisoners and a great hall on the 
second floor of the tower or at the opposite end of the 
court. In the upper part of the tower there were chambers 
for the noble and his attendants. There was little glass 
for the narrow windows, but a fireplace furnished warmth, 
and, during the later semi-barbarous but luxurious "mid- 
dle ages", the tiled floors and stone walls were covered 
with costly rugs and draperies. 

23. Entertainment and Pastimes. — Hunting. — Be- 
yond the courtyard in the larger castles was usually the 
great hall with its huge fireplace and gigantic table, the 
latter groaning with an abundance of hearty foods from 
the forest or barnyard, in time of plenty. Here the master 
with his guests and retainers indulged in hard drinking 
and gluttony, for these were common vices in those days 
among the rich and sometimes among the poor. Here 
jester and bard offered entertainment, and here came 
occasionally wandering minstrels (troubadours or minne- 
singers perhaps), pilgrims lately from the Holy Land, or. 



LIFE OF THE NOBLES 27 

special occasion, the lord of the castle's owner, with 
his great retinue of followers and servants. 

The noble did not spend a great deal of his time w \ix\ Manor houses 

.. i t r • i— 1 i i i i on the different 

his castle. In tact, in England the castles were usually estates of ■ 



me 



royal fortresses, garrisoned by royal troops. He usually '"' le - 
owned several large manor houses on his different estates 
and stayed some time in each. Since the roads were poor 
and food could not easily be brought to him, he and his 
followers went to the supplies, eating the surplus on one 
estate and going on to a second. As he journeyed from 
one to another he might spend the night at some monastary 
— the only substitute for inns — or with one of his vassals, 
or in the open air, as fortune dictated. 

Much attention was given to hunting, foi the forests H unt j ng on 
originally furnished an abundance of game, and later game game preserves 
preserves were established on every estate. With hooded 
falcon on wrist, the nobles sallied forth for an afternoon's 
amusement, or, well-armed, they pursued bear or wild boar 
into the depth of the forest, a sport worthy of a fighter. 

24. Tournaments. — A pastime which grew in favor Jousting. 
as war became less common was tilting or jousting. Joust- 
ing was a combat between two horsemen armed with 
lances, who sought to unhorse each other. Even the youths 
with their miniature lances practiced at tilting, trying to 
see whether they could strike the quintain or dummy fig- 
ure. 1 Knights in search of adventure spent considerable 
time on the road, willing to break a lance with any equal. 2 
If the thrusts of a knight's lance knocked his opponent from 
his horse, the opponent's steed became the victor's prop- 

^his quintain was so constructed that if it was missed by the 
youth or was struck by a clumsy blow, the youth ran into a wooden 
arm or was struck by this swinging arm. 

2 The legends of King Arthur abound with examples of this prac- 
tice. King Arthur was supposed to have lived several centuries be- ' 
fore this time, but accounts tof the advantures were not written 
until this period of feudalism. Consequently the stories of King 
Arthur and his knights of the round table depict ideas, adventures 
and customs of the "middle ages." 



THE FEUDAL AGE 

erty. Then the combat was continued on foot with sword 

If the victorious knight won this also, he gained the am* 
which his opponent had worn. 
individual on- Jousting on a large scale occurred in the frequent tour 
louraamnt naments. Individual contests usually came first. The 
knights rock together fiercely, each aiming his lance at the 
head or breast of his Opponent, and seeking to unhorse him. 
\> soon as one was forced from his steed, the other dis- 
mounted and the contest was renewed with swords until 
one was disabled. Frequently some powerful knight 
v challenged all comer- and disposed of one antagonist after 
another. 
tkt meiee. More like a battle was the melee of the tournament. 

well described by Scott in Ivanhoe, 1 where sides were tak- 
en and a pitched battle ensued. Three -core knights were 
killed in one of these tournaments. Against this practice 
the Church thundered and threatened in vain, but, as times 
grew quieter and the method of warfare changed, tourna- 
ments become more and more displays rather than contests. 
and, about the time of Queen Elizabeth, were discontinued 
How a feudal 25. The Feudal Army and Warfare. — Although the 

army was made p em i a i Age was pre-eminently an age of fighting, there 
was really no army worthy of the name. Each lord sum- 
moned his vassals who fought under his standard and fre- 
quently refused to take orders from any one else. As each 
lord wished to make as good a showing as possible, a king 
could gather a large number of knights and squires besides 
a great rabble of churls or peasants, but a feudal army 
never could be an organized body. Feudal battles likewise 
were usually made up of hundreds of hand-to-hand con- 
flicts, the center of each being a group of strong fighters... 
Knights vs. The real feudal soldier was a horseman, because no 

Displacement criur l m leather tunic could stand against him, but, long 
of feudal before feudalism disappeared, companies of yeomen, armed 

with long bows and fighting in masses at a distance, proved 
that the day of the armed horsemen were over. The ^reat 
'Scott, Ivanhce, Chapter XII. 



LIFE OF THE NOBLES 29 

victories of the English during the Hundred Years' War 
with France (1338-1453) were due to the skill of the Eng- 
lish archers. After gunpowder came into common use so 
that arquebus replaced lance and bow, and cannon were 
used instead of catapults and arbalasts, the armor of the 
knight, like the stone walls of the castle, possessed no fur- 
ther military value. siege methods 

in the Feudal 
When an army attacked a castle or a walled town, a force of men Age. 

was sent forward, protected by a shed called the "cat." The roof of 
the cat was made of tough material like skins so that it could not 
be broken by stones thrown from the walls. Under the protection 
of the cat, forty or fifty men would thrust against the wall a huge 
beam known as the "ram." A smaller sharp-pointed beam, some- 
times called the "rat," was used to pick the wall to pieces. Usually 
these men filled the moat or ditch with brush and dirt so that they 
could reach the wall. If this was done well and the surrounding 
ground was not too rough, a tall wooden tower was pushed against 
the walls, the defenders were driven from their position by the 
showers of arrows and lances from above, and the attacking party 
crossed on a bridge. Perhaps at the same time in another place 
miners undermined the walls, so that the knights could enter 
through the breach which had been made in the walls. 

From a distance heavy bolts were thrown with great violence by Siege artillery 
the arbalast, which was a huge cross-bow mounted on wheels. The 
inangon or catapult hurled immense rocks against the walls or in- 
side the fortifications. Later small cannon threw iron balls or iron- 
tipped arrows. Private war- 

26. Private Warfare. The Peace of God.— Wars fare 
were not confined to conflicts between kings, for, as Rob- 
inson well says, war was the chief amusement as well as 
the main business of the feudal knight. Ambitious nobles 
wished to extend their boundaries. Vassals often sought 
to throw off their allegiance to their overlord. Knights 
found excuse to attack and plunder wealthy neighbors. In 
short, every possible excuse was used as a reason for mak- 
ing private War. Opposition of 
. the Church to 

Private war was countenanced by the laws even as late private war- 
as the fourteenth century, but the Church used its great fare - 
influence against private warfare. Before the time of Wil- 
liam the Conquerer, war upon churchmen, women, peas- 






TH1-". FEUDAL AGE 



The traininn of 
a knitrht. 



Evo'.ul 

chain to plate 
armor. 



1 ben 

veloped a code 
of knightly 
honor, called 
chivalry. 



e 

; 



or merchants was forbidden, under pain of excom- 
munication. This was called the Pane of God. Latei 

private warfare was not permitted from Thursday to Sun- 
day inclusive, nor on holy days, the latter being so numer- 

i 11- that private enmities could he settled, with the permis-ra 
sion of the Church, on not more than one day in four on 
the average. This was called the Truce of God. 

27. The Knight and His Armor. — ( )nly men of noble 
birth who had proved their worth and powers were al- 
lowed to become knights. Sons of nobles at the age of 
seven were taken from their mothers and taught t" serve 
the ladies as pages in the castle of some friend. At four- 
teen the page became a squire, who looked after some 
knight and attended him wherever he went. After some 
years of service he might be deemed worthy of knight 
hood. When that time came, having fasted and spent 
night in prayer, he put on his armor. His patron knigh 
gave him three strokes with the fiat of his sword. In full 
armor he sprang upon his horse without touching the stir- 
rups, and proved his skill with sword and lance. He had 
now reached the time of full manhood. He was a knight/ 

The knightly armor that was in use when America was 
discovered (1492) was very different from that which Wil- 
liam the Conquerer's followers had used. In the tenth and 
eleventh centuries armor consisted of a long leather coat 
covered with metal rings, the head being protected by a 
conical-shaped helmet. Later, coats of mail, that is, of 
interwoven rings, were worn over stiff cloth, but heavy 
blows usually drove the rings into the flesh, so that grad- 
ually plate armor replaced mail, until the knights of the fif- 
teenth century were literally incased in suits of movable 
steel plates. 

28. Chivalry.— The knight was at first only a brutal 
and violent warrior, but, even in that rough age, he learned 
fidelity and loyalty to the person who knighted him and 

'In England the squire rarely went to the trouble and expense of 
being knighted. 



LIFE OF THE NOBLES 31 

to his overlord. In time, more was expected of the knight 
and his oath included a promise to defend the Church and 
protect women. Being strong and courageous, he naturally 
became the champion of the weak and the defenceless. To 
valor he added courtesy. His loyalty for a superior grew 
into fidelity to those of noble birth who sought his help. 
He developed a code in which devotion, liberality and hon- 
or held a high place. Standing by the dead body of 
Launcelot, Sir Hector exclaimed : "Thou wert the cour- 
teousest knight that ever bare shield ; and thou wert the 
truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse ; and 
thou wert the truest lover, of a sinful man, that ever loved 
woman ; and thou wert the kindest man that ever struck 
with sword ; and thou wert the goodliest person that ever 
came among press of knights ; and thou wert the meekest 
man and gentlest, that ever ate in hall among ladies ; and 
thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever 
put spear in the rest." 

Very few knights of the Feudal Age ever attained all influence oi 
or even most of these knightly virtues, but these ideals 
which were held up before the young knights undoubted- 
ly created a respect for the Church and a position for wom- 
en which would not easily have been aroused except for 
the chivalry of the later "middle ages." This feudil period 
was a transitional one from an age of barbarism and blood- 
shed to an age of order, and there was little law but that 
of might, but out of this barbarism came gradually a civili- 
zation in which government, religion and respect for wom- 
en were important. Some of these changes were due to the 
ideals of knighthood or chivalry. As for the knight, we 
may say with Coleridge, 

"The knight's bones are dust. 
And his good sword rust, 
His soul is with the saints, I trust." 

"Chivalry, then may be defined as the moral and social law and 
custom of the noble and gentle class in Western Europe during the c hivalry 
later 'Middle Age,' and the result of that law and custom in action. 



32 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



The services 

of the 

villein to the 
noble. 



Obligation* 
of the serf. 



It applies, strictly speaking, to gentlemen only. Its three princi] 
factors are war. religion and love of ladies." 

"Chivalry taught the world the duty of noble service willing] 
rendered. It upheld courage and enterprise in obedience to rule, 
consecrated military powers to the service of the Church, glorifie 
the virtues of liberality, good faith, unselfishness and courtesy, an 
above all courtesy to women. Against these maj be sei the \iei> i 
pride, ostentation, love of bloodshed, contempt of inferiors an 
loose maimers." (Cornish, Chivalry, pp. 13, 27-28.) 

The Common People Under Feudalism. 

29. Villeins and the Feudal Classes. — Feudalism and 
chivalry were affairs solely for those of noble birth, but 
feudalism could not have existed without a very large class 
of workers which provided food and other necessities andi 
did the drudgery, which all nobles scorned. In the earlier 
and cruder days of feudalism, there were two classes of 
these workers, the freemen or villeins, who dwelt in the 
village, and the serfs. , The villeins were a true peasant 
class, the descendants of free peasants, or small landown- 
ers, who tilled the soil, and, as tenants, made such terms 
as they could with the noble who gave them protection in 
exchange for labor. This labor might be spent upon the 
lord's mill, upon the castle or upon the roads. It might 

1 ^ spent upon the lord's fields, planting or harvesting at a 
time with the peasant's own crops suffered for want of 
care. Or the payment might be simply a supply of grain 
and provisions from the tenant's land. Whether of service 
or produce, the peasant's dues were usually definitely 
known and regularly paid. 

30. Serfs — I nlike the villeins the serfs were not free, 
for they were bound to the land, which they could not 
leave. Unlike the villeins again their services to their 
lord were not fixed and definite. Whenever the noble 
needed their help, to till his fields, cook his food, or care 
for his stable, the serf must drop his own work and give 
what the lord demanded. Even then his life was freer and 
more hopeful than that of his slave ancestors, and the lot 





> 


>0 


1 1 






0) 


hJ 


fa 


<c 


'd 


fa 




o 


<i> 




fa 


r/) 




r/l 




fa 


D 


Ci 


ri 



O J 



THE COMMON PEOPLE 



33 



grew lighter as the centuries went by, for the services that 
.he must give to the noble became fixed by custom. He was 
allowed to marry and might enter the Church, in which 
birth did not debar him from rising to exalted positions. 

Serfdom disappeared in France and England soon after Disappearance 

,„., r .. i r i 11 of serfdom. 

the Crusades, the sen gaming personal ireedoni as 'well 
as the right to pay all of his obligations to his lord at 
stated times and in fixed amounts. In Germany serfdom 
•existed until about one hundred years ago, and in Russia 
Alexander TI freed more than twenty million serfs as late 
•as 1863. The lords usually freed their serfs voluntarily, 
as a villein was a more willing servant and did better work. 
After the Crusades began freedom was purchased frequent' 
ly by the serf, since money had become more plentiful. The 
Black Death, which about 1350 swept away moie than 
half of the working population of western Europe, hastened 
the emancipation of serfs by reducing the number of work- 
ers. Serfs could now demand money wages or could be- 
come villeins. 

31. What the Peasant did for the Lord.— An old Listttftay 

merits on a 

document gives a picture of the dues on a French estate, 1 ?£ ^nce* 3 * 
an estate held by the Church. ' 

"The tenants must fetch stone, mix mortat, and serve the masons. 
Toward the last of June, on demand they must mow and turn hay 
and draw it to the manor-house. In August they must reap the con- 
vent's grain, put it in sheaves and draw it in. For their tenure they 
owe the champart : they cannot remove their sheaves before they 
have been to seek the assessor of the champart, who deducts his due, 
and they must cart his part to the champart-barn ; during this time 
their own grain remained exposed to the wind and rain. On the 
eighth of September the villein owes his pork-due, one pig in eight ; 
he has the right to take out two, the third choice belongs to the 
seigneur. On the ninth of October he pays the cens. At Christmas 
he owes his chicken-due ; also the grain-due of two setters of barley 
and a quart of wheat. On Palm Sunday he owes his sheep-due; and 
if he does not pay it on the day set the seigneur fines him, arbi- 
trarily. At Easter he owes corvee ; by way of corvee he must 



Quoted from Seignobos, Feudal Regime. See Luchaire, Social 
France at the Time of Philip Augustus. 



Later abuses 
from survival 
of peasant's 
obligations. 



The homeof the 
peasant. 



Food. 



M 



Till* FEUDAL AGE 



plough, sow and harrow. If the villein sells his land, he owes tl 
seigneur the thirteenth part of its value. If he marries his daught 
to any one outside the seigneury, he pays a marriage-right of thr< 
sous. He is subjected to the mill-ban and the oven-ban; his wi 
- to get bread; she pays the customary charges; the woman ; 
the oven grumbles— for she is 'very proud and haughty'— and th 
man at the oven complain: ■•■■ rs '^ 

the oven will be poorly heated and that the villein's bread will b 
all raw and not well browned." 1 

In some instances these payments and obligations of the peasant 
in time become purely nominal, that is they were discharged in ful 
by sending to the lord a few pigeons or fowls, or by slight services 
but frequently the obligation remained until recent times. Thest 
survivals of old obligations became abuses, when peasants wen 
obliged to grind their grain at the lord's mill at a much greater 
cost than the mills of neighboring towns might charge; when the\ 
were forbidden to bake bread in ovens that they might own for 
themselves; when tithes that should have been paid to the Church 
were demanded by secular lords 5 when the nobles used their ancient 
hunting rights and crossed peasants' fields, trampling down the 
grain ; when taxes were demanded of peasants in order that worse 
calamities might not befall them. 

32. The Life of the Peasant.— It does not necessarily 
follow that because the nobles oppressed the peasants 
their lives were wretched. Yet the life of the common 
people during the centuries from Charlemagne to the close 
of the Crusades was degraded. Almost all of the peas- 
ants lived in miserable wooden or sod huts of one room, 
with a single window, without glass of course, and no 
chimney. There was little furniture. Perhaps rushes cov- 
ered the earthen floor. Masses of straw served for beds, 
the peasants wearing the same rough clothing during the 
day and at night. Cooking was done outside if the weath- 
er permitted, for an indoor fire was a necessary evil to be 
avoided. In wet weather the room was partitioned off so 
that the pig and poultry might have half. 

Food was coarse and of little variety, animal foods and 

^hampart — part of produce. 

Cens — a very small money rent. 

Corvee — personal service for the noble. 

Ran — order from the noble to use his mill or oven. 



!.' 



■ 



THE COMMON PEOPLE 35 

eavy bread or cakes of wheat or rye forming the main 
liet. Vegetables and fruit were poor, those which are 
lost in use at present being unknown. A cheap beer or 
fine was made and consumed in large quantities. In time 
>f plenty no one went, hungry, but famines and pestilences 
tccurred with alarming frequency. Because the diet in 
vinter was chiefly salted meat 6 :, scurvy was common. Other 
oathsome diseases were caused by the filth in which the 
leasants lived. 

Most of the peasants enjoyed games and sports at some Pastimes. 
:entral point in the village after a hard day's work. Some 
)f them also lived in wooden houses of several rooms sur- 
ounding a court. These were well enough off to enter- 
ain the lord or his friends on their travels. 

33. Cultivation of the Estate. — The peasants of the The village, 
■arly feudal period lived in tiny villages, usually near the estate. 
: oot of the hill on which stood the manor house or castle. 
>Vith each hut or house was a lot of an acre or two, which 
vas later used as a kind of "garden-plot" for the family. 
rhe lands of the estate to which the manor house and vil- 
age belonged were either forest lands, meadow lands or 
jrain lands. The forests were the common range of the 
)igs, and the meadow-land was used by the cattle and 
;heep of all, after a crop of hay had been harvested. 

Each peasant had about thirty acres of land divided into Divisions of the 
r*any strips of from one to three acres. That is, all of estate . 
he cultivated land was separated into three great fields ; 
>ne used for winter wheat, another for spring wheat, or 
)arley or rye, and the third allowed to remain fallow, as 
he peasants did not understand fertilizing or rotation of 
•rops. Each large field was subdivided into these narrow 
;trips of which each peasant had several, usually separated 
: rom one another. The owner of the estate had a great 
nany strips and frequently had large areas which he did 
lot share in any way with the peasants. 

When planting time came, six or eight small oxen— there cultivation of 
were no others — were hitched to the clumsy plow and all farm ,ands - 



56 



nil-: FEUDAL AGE 



of the fields were plowed and planted, irrespective of own 
ership, for no peasant owned a plow and few boasted a 
many as two oxen. Cultivation and harvesting were als< 










PLAN OF A MANOR OR FEUDAL ESTATE 
dofle by common effort, the lord's land usually being cared 
for first and best, under the direction of the steward or in- 
tendant. Eight bushels of wheat per acre was a large crop 
under this Crude method of farming. Under this system 
each estate provided itself with its own food and other 
necessities, only salt, iron— chiefly for armor and plow- 
shares — and millstones being brought in from outside, 
the peasahts A.S the peasants grew more intelligent, and money be- 

w.TrVor""* came more P lentiful > tlie y sometimes gained possession of 
Bometimes separate farms which they cultivated with their own ani- 

fr*>eholders 



Decay of serf- 
dom and of rule 



FEUDALISM 2>7 

mals and tools. Yet in England in 1800 more than one- 
lalf of the land was still cultivated under the old system 
which had survived from the Feudal Age. In changing 
from common cultivation to separate cultivation the peas- 
ants usually remained the tenants of the owner of the 
state, but occasionally they became owners of their own 
land, or freeholders. 

34. Decline of the Feudal System. —The feudal sys- 
tem was an attempt to preserve order and continue gov- by the nobles, 
eminent in an age which started with such lawlessness as 
to be almost anarchy. As western Europe became more 
settled, as roads were built and commerce developed, as 
warfare declined, the feudal system was not so satisfactory. 
Not only did serfs buy their personal freedom, but they 
might gato the towns, where, after a year and a day, their 
lords had no further claim on them. "The old order chang- 
ed!' and the kings began to assert the rights which they_^_—- 
had legally to demand obedience from the nobles. The 
feudal system crumbled to pieces because it had outlived 
its usefulness, but many feudal ideas survived, so that soriie 
feudal dues were paid in very recent times, and, it was not 
until almost our own day that in Germany, for example, 
the duchies and city kingdoms which were "left over" 
from feudal times, were united into a great German em- 
pire. 

As a political institution feudalism was undermined by j^y^f^ 
the rise of towns (sees. 84-88), by the development of the d l lism . 
power of the kings and by the beginnings of national senti- 
ment. As an economic institution it was replaced by the 
money payments which were substituted for services (sec. 
34), by the improvement in roads and the development of 
commerce (sees. 82-84). As a military institution,' it was 
no longer needed when kings could hire troops instead of 
calling upon feudal dependents who might or might not 
furnish knights, and when gunpowder made armor and 
castles valueless. As a social institution it survived all of 
the others, for titles and privileges continued; but the 



33 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Purpose and 
character of 
the Feudal 

System. 






The peasant 
of the Feudal 
A?e. 



clas ty were not separated after 1400 as Che) 

»vere luring the Feudal Age. 

35. Summary.— Feudalism was an attempt to main- 
tiaii order in an age of confusion without sacrificing the 
personal independence which all Teutons held dear. Every 
noble held land, called a fief, from some one higher in 
feudal authority. The superior was called a lord, the de- 
lent a vassal, but both were nobles. The lord gave 
ection and allowed the vassal the use of the fief; the 
vassal gave military service, court service and financial 
Fervice. A noble really ruled his own dominions, with 
y little check upon his authority, if he could make the 
! eq le in that territory obey him rather than the duke or 
the Ling who were this noble's feudal superiors. 

The noble.- lived in manor houses of which each had sev- 
eral. On the continent one of these was probably a castle. 
made of stone, with a huge tower and courtyard within 
walls. The nobles hunted and jousted, but especially de- 
lighted in making private warfare. They were heavily 
armored and always went on horseback. To prevent at- 
tacks on defenseless persons, the Church declared the Peace 
of God, and to break up private warfare, the Truce of God 
limited private fighting to fewer than 100 days a year. In 
the time of the Crusades and the later Feudal Age, the 
knights showed a more chivalrous spirit toward oppon- 
ents and stood forth as the champions of noble women and 
the Church. 

The workers who supported the burden of this system 
r landed rights and social privilege were either serfs, who 
were bound to the soil, or villeins, who were personally 
free but gave services or produce to the nobles in exchange 
for land which they cultivate'. These serfs and villeins 
were not part of the feudal system, they -simply supported 
it. The peasant's burdens were heavy, bis work was con- 
tinuous, his food was crude and his home was without 
comforts. Land was cultivated in common and very un- 
scientifically. During the later Feudal Age the serfs in 









FEUDALISM 39 

^England and France gained their freedom. The lot of the 
villein improved also, and, as money became more plentiful, 
personal services were often changed into money rents an J 
occasionally villeins were able even to buy their laud 

General References 

West, Modern History, 22-51. 

Munro, History of the Middle Ages, 40-50, 135-159. 
Robinson, Readings in European History, I, 171- 
Robinson, Readings in Europe History, 171-194, 399-4.^' 
Adams, Civilization During the Middle Ages, 194-226 
Emerton, Medieval Europe, 477-540. 
Seignobos, The Feudal Regime. 
Bateson, Medieval England. 

Luchaire (Krehbiel), Social France at the l'i)nc of Philip AuguS- 
ius, 249-428. 

Abram, English Fife and Manners in the Later Middle Ages. 
Lacroix, The Middle Ages, 5 vols. 



ElA.' 



Topics 

Sieges in the Feubal Age: Tappan. When Knights Were Bold. 
53-74; Archer Kingsford, The Crusades. 349-366; Cutts, Scenes and 
Characters, 280-393; Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages. 

The Training of the Knight: Tappan, When Knights Were 
Bold, 1-17; Cutts, Scenes and Characters. 406-422; Cornish, Chivalry 
29-46, 58-67. 

Medieval Armor: Boutell, Anns and Armor, 97-152; Cutts, 
Scenes and Characters, 311-352, 452-460; Blashfield, E. H. and E. 
W., in Scribner's Magazine, III (1888), 1-19, 161-180. 

The Condition of the Peasant: Seignobos, Feudal Regime. 
Bateson, Medieval England, 99-106, 252-259; Luchaire, Social France 
at the Time of Pliilip Augustus, 381-420. V 

Studies 

1. Charlemagne's way of raising troops. Robinson, Readings in 
Ewopean History, I, Sees. 57-60. 

2. Origin of feudalism. West, Modern History, Sees. 18-24. 

3. The ceremonies of homage and fealty. Ogg, Source Book of 
Medieval History. No. 36; Robinson, Readings. I. Sees. 83-87. 

4. Important rights of the lord. Ogg, Source Book, No. 38. 

5. The real rulers under feudalism. Munro and Sellery, Medie 
ral Civilization, 159-167, 



40 THE FEUDAL AGE 

6. Life in the castle. Tappan, When Knights were Bold, 75-10 
Blashfield, E. II. and E. VV., in Scribner's Magazine, V (1885 
1-26. 

7. The mirror of fashion. Abram, English Life and Manners 
the Later Middle Ages, 152-172. 

8. Improvement in life of the upper classes. Synge, Social Li, 
in England, 75 81, 87 96, 109 121. 

9. Mete and drinke. Abram, English Life and Manners in th 
Later Middle Ages, 134-151. 

10. A baronial household. Bateson, Medieval England, 302-321 \ 

11. Minstrels in the Feudal Age. Cutts, Scenes and Character 
of the Middle Ages, 267-283, 293 and following. 

12. Tournaments. Cutts, Scenes and Characters, 423-438; Cor 
nish, Chivalry, 86-108. 

13. Amusements in the later Feudal Age. Abram, English Lift 
and Manners in the Later Middle Ages, 230-247. 

14 Change from the feudal army to a national army in France 
Munro and Sellery (eds.). Medieval Civilisation, 547-574. 
15- The medieval bowman. Cutts, Scenes and Characters, 439-446. 

16. Private war. Munro and Sellery (eds.), Medieval Civiliza- 
tion, 177-187. 

17. The Peace of God and the Truce of God. Ogg, Source Book 
of Medieval History, Sec. 39; Robinson, Readings, I, 187-191. 

18. The Church and feudalism. Munro and Sellery (eds.), Med- 
ieval Civilization, 188-201. 

19- The position of women. Abram, English Life and Manners 
in the Later Middle Ages, 31-45. 

20. The Black Death and the peasants' revolt. Cheyney, Short 
History of England, Sees. 211-219. 

21. The home of the peasant. Traill and Mann (eds.), Social 
History, I, 546-550. 

22. The cultivation of an estate. Rogers, Six Centuries of Work 
and Wages, 73-90. 

23. The abolition of serfdom. Cheyney, Industrial and Socia 
History of England, 125-133. 



7 



Questions 



1. Why was the Duke of Normandy more powerful in Normandy 
than the King of France? 

2. What is meant by a hierarchy? Explain how the feudal sys- 
tem, in theory, created a hierarchy. 

3. Explain these terms: lord, vassal, fief, homage, fealty, inves- 






FEUDALISM 41 

,ture, military service, court service, feudal aids, relief; alienation, 
cheat. 

4. Who was an overlord? What could he demand of his vassals? 
/hat dukes or courts recognized the King of France as their im- 
lediate overlord? (See map, sec. 49). 

5. What two powers must any lord possess in order that he 
iould be the real ruler of his estate or domain? 

6. Compare the feudal system of England (sec. 13) with that of 
France. (Sees. 16, 20). 

7. Why were the earliest castles built? Where were they built? 

8. Write a short account of your experiences if you approached 
1 castle and went through it. 

9. Why was there usually "a feast or a famine" in the Feudal 
Lge? 

10. Why did a great lord spend several months at each of his 
lanor houses? Why were game preserves established in the later 
■eudal Age? Why should the peasants have objected to the nobles' 
tunting rights ? 

11. What was the quintain? Why did it pay to hit the quintain 
quarely with your lance? What did a winner in a joust obtain? 

i 12. Show the connection between private warfare, the Truce of 
}od, early tournaments and later tournaments. 

13. What was a "cat?" a "rat?" How was a tower used in tak- 
ng a city? How was a mine used? Compare the effectiveness of a 
ialista, a catapault and a medieval cannon. 

14. Was plate armor superior to a coat of mail? Why? How 
lid the ceremony of knighting test the character, skill and endur- 
ince of the new knight? 

15. What do we owe to chivalry? Is the modern gentleman 
rcore or less chivalrous that the medieval knight? Name differ- 
ences between the medieval standards of character and modern 

tandards. 

16. Why was the serf better off than his ancestors? If the 
villein's lot was worse than that of his forefathers, why did he 
submit to it? 

17. Where does serfdom exist now? In what countries was it 
abolished first? in which, last? How do you account for these 
facts ? 

18. Compare the life of thte peasant with that of our poorest 
laborers at present? Was the peasant worse off than our poor of 
the present ? Explain your answer. 

19. What is meant by cultivation in common? Why was it used 
so universally during the Feudal Age? In what way is it less sat- 



42 THE FEUDAL AGE 

isfactory than separate farm lands which are cultivated by differe 
tenants? by different owners? What is a freehold? For what po: 
tions in Pasadena must one be a freeholder? 

20. Give the reasons for the decline of the feudal system : poll 
ical, economic, military and social. Would you say that the feud 
system declined before or after the discovery of America? Wei 
there any forms of feudalism transplanted to America? 

21. In what ways was the feudal system like the government c 
the social organization of the present day? Compare these things i 
the Feudal Age and at present: What classes are there who cat 
vote? Do all have the same legal rights? Is there a difference i 
the social privileges of trie classes then and now? Who held privat 
property, then? now? Who had personal freedom, then? now? 

22. Mention some things that seem necessary to us that did no 
exist eight centuries ago; some comforts; some luxuries. Has th 
standard of living improved? the standard of morality? 

23. Why would you like to have lived during the Feudal Age 
Why do you prefer to live now? 






CHAPTER III 

THE CHURCH OF THE FEUDAL AGE. 
36. General Character of the Medieval Church. The two great 

_, ... r i t-> 'i i a institutions 

-There were two great institutions of the reudal Age. f the Feudal 
One was the feudal system itself, that system of land-hold- Age - 
tig which divided society into feudal classes of nobles, 
vith serfs and villeins to do the real work, and which gave 
yestern Europe those loosely organized feudal states, with 
veak kings and unruly nobles. The other was the Church, 
in institution unlike any that we have today, although its 
lame suggests organizations with which we are familiar. 

In studying the medieval Church we should take into Distinction 
iccount the disorder and the comparatively crude civiliza- between the 

r J Church as a 

:ion of the Feudal Age. We must discriminate between political organi- 
:he Church as a religions body and the Church as a polit- H^i^tod & 
leal organisation, for the medieval Church played an im- 
portant part in the politics of the time as well as the chief 
role in religion. We ought not to confuse the religious 
and moral work of the Church with the political and social 
policies of the Church, for the Church as a political organi- 
sation zvas little better and little worse tJian its times, while 
the Church as a religious body represented the best ideas 
and wishes of the early feudal period. 

The people almost literally lived and thought and had Jj^^T ° f 
their being in the Church. The Church did not simply 
pray for them and give them religious instruction ; it fur- 
nished the schools, it preserved the learning ; it controlled 
the work days, it ruled the holy days ; it guided the busi- 
ness, it dominated politics. In an age of ignorance, of 
destitution, and of tumult, the Church stood for wisdom, 
for industry and for order. Unquestionably many church- 
men were narrow, dogmatic, intolerant and selfish : in fact 
they were often extermely ignorant, indolent and corrupt. 
Yet the Church remains not simply the greatest force but 



44 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



General. 



All people 
members of 
medieval 
church. 



Organization 
of the Church. 



Religious in- 
struction. 



Schools and 
learning. 



Church lands. 



Great prelates. 



i^oSa 


Kfc.v^l 


P 1 ^] 



the greatest uplifting force of the Feudal Age. 

37. Differences Between the Medieval Church 
and the Modern Church. — In order that we may under- 
stand better this great universal or Catholic Church, with 
Rome as its center, let us compare it with the churches of 
the present time. 

In the first place the medieval church included every f 
one in western Europe. Because it was the only church in f 
western Europe, i. e. a universal church, every child really ' 
was a member of this Church from the time of his birth, 
just as all of us are American citizens if we are born in 
the United States. 

In the second place this universal church needed a very 
large and complete organization. At the top of this orga- 
nization was the spiritu- 
al father or pope. Under 
him were archbishops, 
and under each arch 
bishop many bishops. 
Below the bishops were 
the parish priests, and 
often abbots and abbess 
es. In the third place the 
Church was the religious 
teacher and moral guide 
of every person, since 
all were members of the 
church. Fourth, through 
its priests and bishop';, 
and especially through 
its nuns and monks it collected and made books and fur- 
nished the only schools of that day. Fifth, because the 
Church had extensive lands its officials like the bishops and 
abbots had not only duties as churchmen but also were vas- 
sals and therefore had feudal obligations to their overlords. 
38. The Classes of Churchmen. — There were four 
distinct classes of churchmen. The first of these were the 



NUN-PRIEST 



CHURCH AND PEOPLE 



45 



igher secular clergy, including the great prelates and high 
fficials like the pope (sec. 42), the archbishops and the 
k ishops. These men were usually of noble birth and 
yere ordinarily men of ability and influence. They were 
he aristocrats of the Church, holding the positions which 
nought honor and fame, and which gave great political 
,ower Their spiritual influence among the people was 
.ess than that of their subordinates in the Church of whom 
here were two classes at first and later a third, the friars. 
■ '2) Those of the first class of lesser churchmen were mem- p— * 
; e rs of the secular clergy. These were the parish priests 
*ho looked after the people of parishes or small districts 
nto which each county was subdivided. (3) The second Mon k , 
-lass of the lesser clergy were the monks, who lived apart 
from the world in secluded buildings called monasteries. 
(4) The third class included the friars (brothers), mis- Friars, 
sionaries who traveled from parish to parish and from 
country to country, preaching, healing and comforting, but 
everywhere depending on charity (sees. 61-62). 

39. The Early Monasteries. -As we wish to study stB-gjt 
the lesser clergy rather than the higher 
clergy, let us consider first the monks, 
later the lesser secular clergy, and final- 
ly let us study briefly the political pow- 
er ofthe higher secular clergy. Most 

of the monasteries were supposed to 

follow the rules laid down centuries 

before this time by St. Benedict. Bene- 
dict believed that monks should work 

with their hands. Seven hours for 

labor, seven hours for prayer, seven 

hours for sleep was the rule in many 

monasteries. During the dark ages be- 
fore Charlemagne, the monks reclaimed 

the fields that were going to waste and 

taught the people the dignity of labor. 

They welcomed to their midst all who 

were sick of their conflict with sin and 




BENEDICTINE 
ABBOT 



46 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



What the mon- 
asteries did for 
the people. 



Lax observance 
of monastic 
rules. 



Influence of 
Bernard. 



The priest and 
his assistants. 



the world. They practiced self-denial, living in comfortlest 

cells on a few crusts and often wearing hair shirts. 

Although they lived apart from the world, the example 
of the monks (their industry and their self-denial) had a 
much greater influence among the people than their preach- 
ing could have done. Yet they helped the people directly 
Beggars were fed in great numbers at the gates of the mon- 
asteries. Until the Hundred Years' War. monasteries 
entertained most of the travelers, furnishing the only inns, 
and the monks or nuns had charge of a large number of 
schools. 

40. The Later Monasteries — St. Bernard. — I 
many of the monasteries there was little attempt to kee 
these strict vows or perform these deeds of charity. I 
place of manual labor, any kind of labor was given, the 
copying of manuscripts being one of the most common and 
most valuable substitutes for out-door work. Wealthy per- 
sons left to the monasteries valuable property, so that in 
time the average monk was lazy, selfish and even corrupt. 
The reforms of Cluny (sec. 46) attempted to purge the 
monasteries of their worst evils. This was only one of 
many reform movements. 

A very enthusiastic young man. tall and fair, with ruddy 
hair and winning personality, became very much interested 
in the work of reclaiming men from the world. This man 
was Bernard. From the monastery at Clairvaux in France 
Bernard sent out groups of men to found new monasteries 
that should show -the people the Christ-life on earth. From 
Clairvaux he went forth to preach the second crusade. 
From Clairvaux he was summoned to the councils of kings 
or to decide disputes between two men, each of whom 
claimed to be pope. To Clairvaux came high and low, rich 
and poor, for no one was refused, although Bernard was. 
for a quarter of a century, the spiritual leader of western 
Europe. 

41. The Priest and His Parish. — A figure much 
humbler than the monk was the parish priest, the church- 



CHURCH AND PEOPLE 47 

worker among the people, who was usually one of the com- 
mon people. Despised by monk and prelate, ignorant and 
often worldly, the parish priest was the real foundation of 
that great church organization of which we have spoken. 
The priest alone of all the churchmen came into real con- 
tact with the people. He alone knew them ; their burdens, 
their troubles and their problems. Often he was a poor 
pastor, for the head priest, or rector, frequently held scores 
of benefices or livings, and the actual work of looking after 
the parishioners was done by subordinates. These assist- 
ants were almost always men of humble birth, and they 
did not always live devout lives. 

Nevertheless every priest was fully empowered not only Powers of the 
to preach and minister to his flock, but priests no less than priest 
bishops had the right to administer the sacraments. The 
priest could by baptism bring the soul into the shelter of 
the Church. Marriage was performed only by the Church, 
and usually by the priests, for no civil marriages were per- 
mitted in the Feudal Age. To the priest came all penitents, 
for confession. After confessing their sins, they gained 
absolution. Finally the priest could say "masses" for the 
souls of the living or the dead, the mass being the import- 
ant feature of all church service. 

The Temporal Power of the Church. 

42. The Pope. — The monks and the priests repre- Thepopeas 
sented the working and preaching members of the Church, an dasagreatl 
who were close to the people. Above them were the bishops temporal ruler 
and archbishops, and above all the pope. 2 

As the head of this great Church, he occupied the most 
exalted position and had the greatest influence of any ruler, 
temporal or spiritual. Yet it is the pope as a temporal ruler 
rather than as a spiritual leader whom he must study. 

1 Except that of ordination, that is, of creating members of the 
"Holy orders." 

*The Church officials formed a hierarchy, completely organized 
like the later Roman Empire. 



48 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Bishop of 
Rome (rains 
position as 
head of the 
Church. 



Bishop of 
Rome grains 
temporal power 



Need of uni- 
form law. 



What the 
church law in- 
cluded. 



When the Germans invaded the western Roman empire 
the Bishop of Rome naturally came to be looked upon as 
the real head of the western Church, since Rome was the 
capital of the Western Empire. In time he denied that he 
owed allegiance to the emperor who was at Constantinople, 
and he even gained the right to crown the emperors of the 
Holy Roman Empire (sec. 49), who were not considered 
as true emperors without the papal sanction and blessing. 

In addition to being the spiritual head of western Europe, 
the pope (Bishop of Rome) had gained very extensiv \ 
powers as a civil ruler. In the fifth century, when Rome, 
was threatened by the barbarians, the pope not only sought 
the withdrawal of the Germans, but, from the coffers of the 
Church, had repaired the walls of the city and paid troops 
for defense. The popes thus not only became the most- 
powerful of the political leaders of the imperial city, but 
became accustomed to exercise more or less temporal pow- 
er over the territory under their control. This territory 
was called the patrimony of St Peter. When the father of 
Charlemagne gave the pope control of lands across Italy. 
(called the Donation of Pippin), he practically made the 
pope a great feudal lord. The political power which later 
popes had as feudal lords made it possible for them to claim 
the right, first, to help princes preserve order, and later to 
control political affairs of rulers throughout western Eu- 
rope. 

43. The Church Courts. — The pope and the Church 
did not gain this great temporal power by the use of armies. 
They obtained it in part through the Church law and the 
Church courts. As there were no national legislatures and 
the feudal kings could make few laws, the civil latvs were 
different in every barony or county of which there were 
thousands in western Europe. The Church, however, had 
a law of its own. This church lazv was about the same 
over all western Europe. It dealt not only with churches 
and churchmen, but with every subject connected with the 
Church.. The Peace of God and the Truce of God were 



I W j»»^ 



0, 



bslA- 



■N S . 






£ 



♦ *!! 



SOS . ! « ~ <3. ; 



.BTE 



Ginn & Co., copyrighted. 



Excommuni- 
cation. 



The interdict. 



The reforms 
of Cluny. 




Rip 



-JOsnabruok . 
/I--, /' \ ° y - 

- -'~'"i_aml,rajCT ,. I x^est 

.,- '■° JI =^wyJ ■■ '-'TtAfurt c 

- : « V W^ JX_^Oi-y.aon VT— > J*" »yence* 

^fN'v T T 1 %. i t/v 

rojesV'Jfc I \> otrasburgy p-g. 

; >-W/ Vlem 

10i "erso \J¥«rges\ (S o t^S "y^ ABM I 
\\ 7] *-^., ■ IvreaSJ 

^/ I ( r~^ i Genoa c 




EMPIRE OF THE E A T I M I 




' eggy 1 )! 



From Robinson's History of Western Europe 



Courtesy of (Jinn <fc Co., copyrighted. 



Bishop of 
Rome gains 
position as 
head of the 
Church. 



Bishop of 
Rome grains 
temporal pow. 



Need of uni- 
form law. 



What the 
church law in- 
cluded. 



TEMPORAL POWER OF THE CHURCH 49 



parts of the Church's law. This law covered many subjects, 
like marriage, care of children, the breaking of agreements, 
and the taking of life, that are today included in the civil 
or criminal law. Furthermore all persons, laymen or clergy- 
men, who broke the Church's law were tried in Church 
courts. So the Church gave western Europe a set of al- 
most universal laws by punishing offenders in its own 
courts. 1 

44. Excommunication and the Interdict. — Even Excommuni- 
more drastic means that were used against persons who 
opposed the Church or broke its laws were excommunica- 
tion and the interdict. By excommunication the offender 

was cast out of the Church and was stripped of office or 
lands. Not only was his soul lost unless he made his peace 
with the Church, but all who aided him, even those of his 
own household, would lose their souls as well. Until it was 
abused by over-use, excommunication was a terrible and 
effective weapon against the enemies of the Church. 

The interdict laid the curse of the Church on whole com- The interdict. 
munities or countries whose people or rulers disobeyed its 
mandates. Only occasional services were held. In some 
cases even these were suspended. 2 The interdict usually 
compelled princes to yield to the Church, but it injured the 
Church because the prince's subjects were forced to do with- 
out religious services. 

45. Need of Reform in the Church. — The Giurch Tke reforms 
could bring erring members to terms by the use of excom- 
munication and the interdict, but it could not free itself 

W law-breaker who fled to a church had the right of "sanctuary," 
and could not be punished by the civil authorities so long as he was 
in the church or under its protection. 

2 An especially severe example of the interdict occurred in Nor- 
mandy in 1 137. "The people were forbidden to enter the churches 
for the purpose of worshipping God, and the doors were locked. The 
music of the bells was silenced, and the bodies of the dead lay un- 
buried and putrifying, striking the beholders with fear and horror. 
The pleasures of marriage were denied to those desiring them and 
the solemn joys of the Church services were no longer known." — 
Pennsylvania Translation and Reprints, IV, No. 4, p. 28. 



50 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Dangers to the 
Church from 
the marriage 
of the clergy. 



ind 



easily from corruption. Several times between 800 and 
1600 the corruption became so serious that reform was 
necessary. One of these reform movements took place in 
the eleventh century. 1 The Church had grown rich, its 
wealth had attracted irreligious men who obtained fat of- 
fices, and her clergy were often indifferent and worldly. 
These evils led to a demand for reform. Three demands 
were more important than others.- (1) that the clergy 
should not marry, (2) that churchmen should no longer 
buy their offices, and (3) that bishops and the pope should 
be chosen by the Church and not by outsiders. 

46. Opposition to the Marriage of the Clergy. — 
The demand that the clergy should n t marry cime in part 
from those who objected to the clergy having worl ly in- 
terests because the care of their wives and children would 
interfere with their religious work. It came also from 
those who feared that the bishops and other churchmen 
would deprive the Church of its great wealth. The ex- 
tensive church lands were held by the bishops and abbots 
usually as the fiefs of the king or of some great noble. If 
these churchmen were allowed to marry, this land might 
come to be looked upon as the bishop's land rather than 
the Church's property. In time the bishop's sons would 
claim that church fiefs, like any other fief, should descend 

*Later reform movements occurred in the thirteenth, fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. The thirteenth century movement was due to 
the failure of the Church to reach the poor in the cities and the 
heretics in France. The heretics were crushed in a crusade and 
the friars temporarily strengthened the hold of the Church on the 
people (sees. 58-62). The second movement took place two hun- 
dred years later when there were two popes, the Church was badly 
disorganized and heresy was spreading in England and Bohemia. A 
series of Church councils gave temporary relief. The third move- 
ment was a revolution, the great Reformation, started by Martin 
Luther, which separated most of the northern churches (called Pro- 
testant), but led to more extensive reforms within the Church than 
any of the others. 

*These are sometimes called, from the monastery in eastern 
France which demanded reform most strongly, the reforms of Cluny. 



choose the 
higher clergy. 



TEMPORAL POWER OF THE CHURCH 51 

:roni father to son. Such a change would deprive the Church 
lot only of its wealth, but of most of its income, and 
would reduce the power which the Church had because it 
,vas wealthy. 

47. Simony. — Simony 1 was the name gfiven to the Pur chaseof 

° Church offices. 

practice of buying church offices. It had been in use from 
Roman times. After Charlemagne purchase of church posi- 
tions was frequently a means by which an ambitious or un- 
scrupulous noble gained control of the land of some bishop- 
ric or even elevated himself to the Holy See, that is, the 
Papacy. Such a misuse of church offices not only filled the 
Church with unworthy men but prevented it from being 
the religious teacher and moral guide which it was sup- 
posed to be. 

48. The Question of Investiture. — A third difficulty who should 
or evil which confronted the Church was this question : who 
should elect the bishops and the pope? These high church- 
men were both church officials and civil magistrates. A 
bishop was not only a bishop, but he was a vassal of some 
king or duke. If the Church selected its own bishops, should 
the king or dukes have nothing to say about who should 
control the lands of the bishopric as their vassals? Here 
was a very real problem ; the bishop was literally serving 
two masters — one a religious organization, the Church, the 
other a feudal overlord. Which should choose him and 
which should control him? In other words, who should 
invest him with his office and fief? To settle that ques- 
tion the Papacy, soon reformed and powerful, waged with 
the emperor a conflict which lasted more than a half cen- 
tury. This is the beginning of the ■ CONFLICT BE- Empire vs 
TWEEN EMPIRE AND PAPACY that lasted two hun- Papacy ' 
dred years. The first phase of the struggle is called the 
Investiture Strife; the later phase is a Struggle be- 
tween THE HOHENSTAUFEN EMPERORS AND THE POPES. 

1 Simony derives its name from the attempt of Simon Magus to 
buy from Peter and John the power of the Holy Ghost. Acts III, 
18, 19. 



The empire at 
the successor 
of the Roman 
Empire. 



The Holy 
Roman empire 
in theory and 
in fact. 



The Hilde- 

brandine 

policies. 






52 THE FEUDAL AGE 

The Investiture Strife, 1059-1 12J a. d. 

49. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Natic 

— We have mentioned the empire in the preceding sectior 
In theory this was a continuation of the Roman Empire i 
Augustus and Constantine which had once held sway <>v 
the Mediterranean World, but had lost western Euro] 
when the German barbarians overran Italy, < iaul. Spa 
and Britain. It was more directly the successor of Charlt 
magne's empire. 1 

The empire of the "Middle Ages" was revived by Ott 
I, King of Germany, in 962. It was now called the Hol% 
Roman Empire of the German Nation. In theory it includm 
cd all of western Europe, the kings and princes of all connffj 
tries being theoretically vassals of the emperor. But in fac 
it did not include more than Germany and Italy, becaus 
Rome, the old capital of the empire, was in Italy. The em 
perors usually went to Rome to be crowned by the pope 
and returned to Germany in order to put down the insur 
rections of the great nobles which always occurred as sooi 
as the emperor was absent or was otherwise engaged. 

Under Henry III (1039-1056) the empire reached the 
height of its power, for Henry conquered his enemies on 
the eastern border of Germany, repressed with a strong 
hand the turbulent nobles who objected to a strong impe- 
rial government, and reformed the papacy by deposing the 
three rival popes and appointing in their stead a succession 
of able and upright popes. 

50. Hildebrand and his Policies.— "When Henry III 
died he left a son but six years old to continue his aggres- 
sive policy. Henry IV was confronted by two dangers. On 
the one hand were the powerful nobles who had obeyed his 
father because they did not dare do anything else. On the 
other was a monk, Hildebrand, the son of an Italian peas- 

x More exactly, it was the successor of that part of Charlemagne's 
empire which was held by Lothair's successors after the treaties of 
Verdun and Mersen (section 3 and note) for it included only Ger- 
many and most of Italy. 



I 



THE INVASTITURE STRIFE 53 

^nt, a man small of stature and of frail physique, who had 
''[■een the power behind the papacy even in the time of Henry 

II. Hildebrand was determined that the Church should 
v jie reformed. He was equally determined that the emperor 
'Ilhould no longer make and unmake popes, and Hildebrand 
lavished especially to bring the emperor into subjection to 

he pope. To accomplish these ends, he insisted that the 

>ope should be elected by the Church. 
The conflict between the empire and the papacy might be Election of the 
'taid to have begun during the boyhood of Henry IV when ^^nais. C 
Ir :he Church decreed (1059) that the pope should be elected 

3y a body of "Cardinal bishops," a college of cardinals as 
it is called now. 

51. Henry IV and Gregory VII.— Hildebrand was Beginning of 
chosen pope as Gregory VII in 1073. Two years later the over the in- 
Church at Rome decreed that marriage of the clergy should ▼estiture. 
no longer be permitted, and Gregory threatened to excom- 
'municate any emperor, king or noble who invested an ab- 
bot or a bishop with lands and also threatened to excom- 
municate the churchman who accepted church office from 

a layman. When Gregory informed Henry that some of 
his counsellors had been excommunicated, Henry replied in 
a violent letter. "By craft abhorrent to the profession of 
monk, thou hast acquired wealth; by wealth, influence; by 
influence, arm ; by arms, a throne of peace. And from the 
throne of peace thou hast destroyed peace . . ." He 
demanded that Gregory relinquish the apostolic chair which 
he had "usurped" and closed with the demand "come down, 
come down to be damned through all eternity." Gregory's 
reply was excommunication. He deposed King Henry, ab- 
solved Henry's subjects from their allegiance, and declared 
him anathema. Any one who helped a person against whom 
the Church had hurled its curses was likely to lose his soul. 

52. Canossa (1077).— The German nobles found the Humiliation of 
excommunication of Henry an excuse for opposing him and enry ' 
helping Gregory. They decided that Henry should be de- 
posed unless he made his peace with the Church within one 



54 THE FEUDAL AGE 

year. Gregory was invited to come to Germany in orck 
to help the nobles settle German problems, a task' which tl 
pope was only too glad to undertake, since it seemed t 
show that the pope rather than the king was the greater ru 
er, even in Germany. To prevent the pope from dircctin 
German affairs in this fashion, Henry offered to go to Rome 
When Gregory started north, Henry hastened south, cros^ 
ing the Alps in the dead of winter. The king had gaine- 
a partial victory in keeping Gregory out of Germany. l,u 
the scene which followed at the castle of Canossa in north 
em Italy showed the great power of the Church Three 
days, in penitent's garb, Henry stood in the snow in the 
courtyard of the castle before Gregory received him back 
into the Church. 
Hen^-sre- Henry was now free to act against the German nobles 

whom he overpowered. He then returned to Italy where 
he had his revenge by conquering the city of Rome. Greg- 
ory was obliged to leave the city. A few months later he 
died, saying, according to report, "I have loved justice and 
hated iniquity, and therefore I die in exile." Henry lived 
twenty years longer, opposed by popes, nobles and his own 
sons, until, worn out, he abdicated his throne in favor of 
his son, Henry V, who had helped the pope 
ov3r p : s l ,"' The Concordat of Worms (1122 A.D.)-Henry 
iem of mvesti- \ as emperor deserted the ally, the papacy, with which he 
had fought against his father. After a further struggle, the 
investiture conflict came to an end with the Concordat of 
Worms (1122). .The emperor agreed that the Church 
should elect its own abbots and bishops. He agreed fa- 
ther that the Church alone should give the newly-ele-ted 
officers the ring and the staff, which were the symbols of 
their spiritual office. On tVe other hand the pope agreed 
that elections of German bishop- and abbots should V in 
the presence, and with the consent of the emperor md 
that the new officers should receive the regalia, or symbols 
of civil authority, from the emperor. Thus as clear a divi- 
sion as possible was made between the religious position 
and feudal tenure of the abbots and the bishops. 



HOHENSTAUFEN EMPERORS AND POPES 55 

t^HE HOHENSTAUFEN EMPERORS AND THE POPES 1152-1250 

i 

54. Frederick Barbarossa.— For a number of years 

he German kings paid little attention to Italian affairs. Un- 
der Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa or Red Beard), the 
third of the Hohenstaufen line, an attempt was made to in- 
crease imperial authority in Germany and in Italy. A man 
of magnificent physique, the ideal sovereign of the "Middle 
Ages," Frederick failed to combine two countries so dissim- 
ilar as Germany and Italy. To the old opposition of pope 
and German nobles there was now joined a new force, the 
great cities of northern Italy ,-e. g., Milan, Verona and Ven- 
ice, a force which represents the modern commercial idea 

i as distinct from the medieval feudal one. 

Frederick was exceedingly arbitrary and severe in deal- 
ing with the cities of the Po valley. After he had taken 
Milan, the leader, be allowed the city to be destroyed by her 
jealous neighbors. His severity aroused against himself the 

' opposition of all of the cities of northern Italy, which or- 
ganized the Lombard League. The popes gave the league 
their support and in 1176 at Lcgnano the league defeated 
the haughty emperor. 1 In the Peace of Constance, seven 
years later, Frederick agreed to leave to the cities the right 
to elect their own officials, and manage their own affairs, 
provided they recognized Frederick as their overlord. 

In spite of this defeat, Frederick was at the height of his 
power during these years following the Peace of Constance, 
and he had so far restored order throughout his empire that 
he joined Richard of England and Philip Augustus of 
France on the third crusade (sec. 76), on which he died. 

55. Innocent III. — Frederick Barbarossa had married 
his son, Henry, to the heiress of the kingdom of Sicily. It 
was of the utmost importance to the papacy that southern 
Italy should not be united with northern Italy and Germany. 
The chief champion of that policy, that is, the policy to 

1 The imperial party was called "Ghibelline", the papal party 
"Guelf." The names survived in Italy for several centuries, but lost 
their original meaning. 



Imperial 
policy of Fred- 
erick. 



FrederickHs 
defeated'b y ''i"1 
the {.orabard 
League. 



Frederick^at 
the heigh t^of 
his power. 



Innocent III 
and his 
emperors. 



56 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Innocent III 
extends the 
temporal pow- 
er of the 
papacy. 



Revival of con- 
flict between 
the empire and 
the papacy. 



make the papal states independent 1 and keep the Hohenstai 
fen kings from uniting all of Italy under their rule, was th 
pope, Innocent 111, who was chosen to the pontiffs chair ii 
1198. Innocent III believed thoroughly in the policy o 
Gregory I 'J I that the pope should be the temporal ruler a. 
well as the spiritual head of western Europe. He first mad< 
himself the real ruler of Rome. Then he asserted his righ 
to decide between the two claimants to the imperial throne 
As the Hohenstaufen were represented by a boy, Frederick 
grandson of Barbarossa, who was both the ward and the 
feudal vassal of Innocent, the danger of a united Italy un- 
der German rule was averted during the life of Innocent. 

Innocent went much farther than Gregory in using the 
curses of the Church against his enemies. Gregory had ex- 
communicated his enemies. Innocent not only excommuni- 
cated his princely opponents, but placed the people of two 
countries under the interdict. Churches were closed, the 
dead were denied burial and religious services ceased. By 
the use of this terrible weapon Philip Augustus of France 
was forced to take back the wife whom he had divorced, and 
John of England was compelled to give up England to the 
pope and receive it back from him as a fief. Other kings, 
including those of Portugal. Spain and Hungary, were 
forced to do the pope's bidding. Even Innocent could 
not make good all of his claims to power over all western 
Europe, 2 and, after death,- the papacy declined percept- 
ibly. 

56. Frederick II. — The death of Innocent III oc- 
curred about the time that Frederick Barbarossa's grandson 
became emperor as Frederick II. Frederick had been born 
in the south and had been king of "Sicily" for many years. 

*In doing this he followed the policy of his predecessor, Alexan- 
der III, the arch-enemy of Frederick Barbarossa, and the ally of the 
Lombard League. 

*The religious prestige of the papacy was strengthened by a cru- 
sade (the fourth) against the Turks, which really injured only the 
Eastern Roman empire, and a terrible crusade of extermination 
against the Albigenses, a heretic sect of France. 



Success of 
Frederick. 



HOHENSTAUFEN EMPERORS AND POPES 57 

'hroughout his life he was more interested in his kingdom 
if Sicily than in the Germans, but he believed thoroughly 
hat the empire must be revived and strengthened and that 
ae papacy was the arch-enemy of the empire. He had 
iromised Innocent III that when he should become emper- 
r, he would give up his kingdom of Sicily. Innocent's suc- 
cessor did not insist on the separation of the north from 
ne south, because he wished Frederick to undertake a cru- 
ade, which Frederick finally did. 

) Bald and insignificant in appearance as Frederick was, he 
•lust be ranked as one of the greatest emperors of the Holy 
toman Empire. 1 He was generally successful against the 
German nobles, the Lombard cities and the jealous rulers 
4 central Italy. During the last years of his life, the 
opes paid less attention to excommunication, which had 
»een used against Frederick II as well as against his grand- 
ather with very little effect. Instead the popes preached 
mong other kings and rulers a crusade against the emper- 
or Frederick on the ground that he was an unbeliever. 

Frederick's death in the midst of these struggles in 1250 Decline of the 
eft the apparent victory with the Church, and the empire 
rom this time lost its hold on Italy and became a German 
tate, 2 less united and less well-ruled than France or Eng- 
and, because its kings had sacrificed national unity to their 
(reams of empire in Italy. In fact, so much did the Em- 
)ire decline that, as Voltaire wittily remarked in the eight- 
eenth century, it was neither holy nor Roman nor imperial. 

iFrederick's intellectual ability, his skill in diplomacy, the energy 
vith which he organized his kingdom of Sicily, above all, the clear- 
less of his perception that states must be organized as absolute 
nonarchies not subject to papal domination, all mark him not only 
s a great man, but as a modern rather than a medieval statesman. 

a The emperor was elected by the great nobles. Before 1356 this 
vas done by those who had the greatest power. By the Golden Bull 
>f Charles IV in 1356 seven electors were designated, the archbish- 
ips of Mayence, Treves and Cologne, the "electors" of the Palatin- 
ite, of Saxony and of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. 
fwo other electors were added afterward (1648 and 1692). 



empire. 



Decline oi the 
papacy. 



Changes and 
discontent 
during last 
half of the 
twelfth cen- 
tury. 



New methods 
in ihe Church. 



The Walden- 
ses. 



58 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



57. Results to the Papacy of the Struggle with th 
Empire.— The victory of the papacy over the empire di 
it little good, however, for already in 1250 the times wei 
changing. Neither empire nor papacy could rule wester 
Europe after the feudal system began to decline, as it di 
about this time. Moreover, the Church found that a ne 1 
reform movement was necessary to crush heresy an 
maintain the prestige and authority of the Church anion 
the people. The removal of the papal capital from Rom 
to France and the quarrels over the papacy still furthe 
weakened the political influence of the church. (Sec. 65. 






Church and People — Later Feudal Age. 



58. New Needs of the People and New Methods i 



if 



r 



the Church. — Great changes were occurring in westen 
Europe during the half century before Innocent III becam< 
pope. Towns were growing rapidly, commerce was 9p 
ing, wealth was increasing, schools and universities wen 
becoming more numerous. Tn towns there was consider 
able poverty, and a great deal of vice and crime. Every 
where change was demanded. Discontent and doubt wertf 
prevalent especially in southern Europe. 

The Church had lost its hold on many of its members 
from the Pyrenees to the Danube. Besides these heretics 
tens of thousands of others needed better teaching and more 
help than the Church had been giving. To destroy heresy 
crusades were undertaken against these European unbeliev- 
ers. To give different instruction a new order of church- 
men, the Dominican or black friars, was established. To 
bring the people aid and comfort was the work of the 
Franciscans or gray friars. 

59. Two Sects of French Heretics.— The largest 

number of heretics was found in Southern France. Here 
two important sects had arisen. The Waldenses, or poor 
men of Lyons, went about doing good and trying to purify |j 



CHURCH IN LATER FEUDAL AGE 59 

ae Church, but they went without the pope's sanction and 
isisted on preaching- new doctrines. The Waldenses were 
te thirteenth century Protestants. They had many fol- 
i>wers in Southern France, in the Swiss cantons, and in the 
erman states further east. 

In southern France another sect called Albigenses gained The Aibigen- 
: numerous following. The Albigenses must not be con- 
rised with the Waldenses. The Albigenses believed in an 
riental non-Christian doctrine that the world is ruled by 
: good spirit and by an evil spirit. They denied the Trin- 
y and the existence of a place of punishment after death. 

60. The Albigensian Crusade.— Against the Albi- Harsh su p- 
enses Innocent III declared a crusade (1209). Good Cath- heresy ?n° 
lies from many parts of Europe joined in this crusade Prance, 
gainst western heretics, but the main army of suppression 

ame from the north of France, and was led by de Mont- 
Drt. Some of the cities, like Beziers and Carcassonne, held 
ut for a long time, but were captured by the crusaders. 
Vhen a town was taken, as it was impossible to distinguish 
vlbigenses from Waldenses, or Waldenses from Catholics, 
11 were mercilessly butchered. The Albigenses were wiped 
ut, only a few Waldenses survived and sunny, southern 
'Vance was desolated. It was an orthodox victory char- 
cteristic of Innocent III, and a great advantage to the 
rown of France, which annexed the great county of Toul- 
use as royal domain soon after. 

61. The Dominican Friars and the Inquisition. The inquisi- 

tion. 
—The crusade was followed in southern France and else- 
where by the inquisition. Heretics were hunted out and 
irought to trial before special churchmen who were zeal- 
jus for the Church. The inquisitors were harsh in their 
nethods, resorting to torture if necessary in order that the 
ccused person might be forced to recant. Even those that 
ecanted were punished severely and those who refused fre- 
[uently were burned at the stake. 
In southern France the work of suppressing heresy bv st " D ° m ' D , 1 , c 

Jrl ° J and his follow- 

he inquisition was turned over chiefly to the new order of «•». 



60 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Life of St. 
Francis. 



Orowthof the 

Franciscan 

order. 



It 



black friars. This order had just been founded by St. D< 
minic, a learned an'l devout Spaniard of noble birth. D< 
nii>iic's followers were stem, dogmatic, wandering preache 
to whom heresy was the greatest of crimes. 

62. The Franciscans. — The founder of the secon 
famous order of the friars was Francis of Assizi. Frai 
cis was the son of a successful Italian merchant. As 
boy he was gay, careless and thoughtless, but a severe il'cs 
ness aroused in him a greater interest in his fellowmeifo 
He decided to give his life to poverty and good worki-nc 
When his father objected, Francii| 
cast aside the garments which thcoi 
father had given him and started oullu 
barefoot, his cloak fastened with al 
piece of rope. His sincerity and enj 
thusiasm attracted many follower ■ 
who agreed to devote themselves tc j 
visiting and working among the poor 
especially the lepers. Without purse 
or script, supporting themselves liter- 
ally as Christ had requested that hi^ 
first disciples should do, they wenU 
out bringing joy to thousands. One 
day, according to the story, the pope., 
the great Innocent III, was walking 
in his gardens when he noticed a beg-j 
gar before him. He turned upon him in anger ready tow 




Dominican Friar 



drive him out. Instead, won by the charm and genuine 
piety of Francis, he gave his blessing on the work. 

In the few years before Francis died, he saw his mis- 
sionary movement spread as no religious movement ever 
spread before, over all western Europe. His followers 
sometimes forgot their high calling, occasionally accepting 
wealth and lives of ease, but their efforts brought, even to 
distant California, the spirit and the teachings of the saint- 
ly Francis of Assisi. 



CHURCH IN LATER FEUDAL AGE 61 

63. Adoration of the Virgin. — The practical work of social import- 
lie Franciscans was only one way in which the Church re- adorttL'n of ' 
enerated society during this period. Another, which up- the virgin, 
.fted men and women and created for women a respect 

irhich they had never had before, was the reverence in 

^hich the Virgin Mary was held. The Virgin dominated 

eligious worship in the churches and in the homes. The 

vtylve Marias were prominent in the services, as the statues 

f the Virgin held a place of honor in every home. Church- 

s were dedicated to Our Lady, for example, the beautiful 

rtfotre Dame Cathedral of Paris. The Virgin was the chief 

motive in most of the art of the later Feudal Age and the 

iubsequent period of the Renaissance. It is impossible, of 

ourse, to say how much this adoration of the Virgin in- 

liuenced the men of this period in their attitude toward 

jvomen, but it is certain that its influence was considerable. 

Many stories and legends are told of the services done a story oi the 
or the Virgin and of the miracles performed by her. One 
>f the most beautiful tells of an erring nun who left the 
'onvent to which she belonged. After fifteen years she re- 
turned to the convent and asked after Beatrix, for that 
vas the name by which she had been known. Imagine her 
urprise when told that Beatrix had never left the convent, 
or it seems the Virgin had taken her place and done her 
Vork all of that time. Grateful and penitent, the nun re- 
urned to her holy life. 

64. Miracle Plays. — Another way in which the Church Purpose and 
ried to teach the people was through religious pageants or 
through miracle plays. The most important events record- 
id in Scripture were presented in these plays. Originally 

hey were intended chiefly for religious instruction, as it 
vas easier to teach many truths by this means than in any 
■>ther way. Later they were used chiefly to keep the hold of 
he Church on the people, for the plays were a source of great 
interest. At first they were given in the churches. Later 
hey were presented more frequently in some special ad- 



62 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Characteristics 



General reas- 
ons for the 
decline. 



The Bab ylon- 
ian captivity 
(1309-1347) 



jacent chapel, and, after 1400, they were given by the d 
ferent gilds of the towns rather than by the Church. 

These plays were very realistic. They brought home 
the people the reward of real virtue and the punishment 
sin. The fortunate are carried up into heaven, represent* 
by a cloud, by means of a rope and windlass. At the clo 
of the play on the unwise virgins, Christ appears and cas 
them down into the pit of destruction. The deluge was 
favorite theme, especially when Noah's wife refuse I to he'fliftii 
build the ark and knocked her husband down. But in spii 
of the crudity and even vulgarity of some features in the 
plays, they appealed to the imagination of the people. Ofte 
these plays or pageants taught the people in the same loft 
spirit in which the Passion Play at Oberammergau has bee 
given in our own day. 

65. Decline of the Papacy. — In spite of the work 
the friars and the effort made by the Church to retain th'th 
support of the people, during the fourteenth century th 
papacy lost not only most of its temporal power but mud 
of its spiritual influence also. This decline was due to th< 
removal of the papal capital from Rome to Avignon ii 
France (1309), and to the forty-year struggle between ; 
pope at Rome and a pope at Avignon, each of whonP 
washed to be recognized as head of the Church. 

For seventy years the popes lived at Avignon in south-In 
ern France, a period known as the "Babylonian Captivity' 
of the papacy. The popes at Avignon had much less auth- 
ority than those of the previous century in Rome. The\ 
no longer seemed to be the head of a universal church, but 
in other countries were considered as French popes. Eng- 
land refused to pay the dues which King John had promised 
when he accepted his kingdom from Innocent III as a fief. 
Germany did not accept the decrees of the French popes, 
while Wyclif in England and later Huss in Germany 
gained a wide following by preaching doctrines different 
from those advocated by the Church. To be sure Wyclif's 
bones were disinterred, burned, and his ashes were scat- 



THE FEUDAL CHURCH 63 

ered ; but the papacy had undoubtedly lost its political in- 

uence and was in danger of losing its spiritual headship 

f Europe. 
This serious decline was caused by the Great Schism TheGreat 
" 1377-1417), as well as the Babylonian captivity. During (1377-1417). 

he Great Schism there were two popes, each denying the 
vuthority of the other. Naturally the people, even devout 

atholics, began to lose faith in the power and infallibility 
l)f the papacy. The Council of Constance was finally called 
110 settle the questions of the papacy and of the heresy of 
.-[uss. Huss was burned at the stake in spite of the safe 
conduct that had been promised him, and the three popes 
t)f that year (1414) were deposed. The papacy was finally 
inited, but a pope who owed his election to a council could 
lot logically claim to be supreme in the Church, since the 
xmncil had shown that it was above the pope, at least for 
:he moment. 

66. Summary. -The Church of the Feudal Age was The church 
both a spiritual body, which included all of the people, and pe0 pie. 
Ian organization wielding political power. As an organiza- 
tion it was made up of the higher clergy — the pope, the 
archbishops and the bishops— and the lower clergy — the 
monks, the priests and the friars. The monasteries were 
founded centuries before the Feudal Age. Originally the 
rule was strict, later it became lax, needing reform. The 
monks and nuns, the regular clergy, lived apart from the 
world ; the priests, the lower secular clergy, lived in their 
parishes and ministered directly to the needs of the people. 

The temporal power of the Church, that is, the political The temporal 
power that it wielded, grew as the Church lands became church 
more extensive, and as the civil authority of the Bishop of 
Rome (the pope), was recognized more widely. By the 
use of Church courts, of excommunication and the inter- 
dict, this power was developed until the popes believed that 
they should be obeyed by princes. As the Church became 
wealthy and powerful, reforms were needed. Three seri- 
ous evils were the marriage of the clergy, the custom of 



64 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



The Investi- 
ture Strife. 



Hohenstaufen 
emperors and 
the popes. 



The Church in 
the later 
Feudal Age. 



buying church offices, called simony, and the election ( 
church officials by laymen. 

The great Emperor Henry III selected good popes, bi 
Hildebrand, afterward Gregory VII, insisted that tr 
Church should select its own popes, bishops and abbot 
and should be free from simony and a married clergy. A 
Canossa he forced the German king, Henry IV, to seek foi 
giveness, after humiliating him deeply. By the Concorda 
of Worms (1122), the Church was allowed to choose it 
officials and the emperor could decide whether they wer 
proper vassals. 

In the later struggle between the empire and the papacy] 
Frederick I and Frederick II tried to unite Germany an< 
Italy. The popes, Alexander III and Innocent III, aimec 
to prevent this so as to preserve the "States of the Church." 
Innocent III tried also to secure recognition of himself a- 
the overlord of all European kings. After the death of 
Frederick II the papacy was victorious over the empire, 
but its victory was short-lived. 

After Innocent III reforms were as necessary as in th 
time of Gregory VII. The Dominican and Franciscan 
friars began to preach and to heal the people, while heresy 
was exterminated by the sword, especially in southern 
France (the Albigensian crusade). The Church revived 
old methods and adopted new practices to reach the peo- 
ple. Nevertheless both the Church and the papacy de- 
clined; the papacy because the French popes (Babylonian 
captivity) and the dissentions between two claimants to 
the papacy (Great Schism) weakened the authority of the 
pope ; the Church because it did not reform itself to count- 
eract the growing weakness of the papacy, or to meet the 
growth of new national feelings and the demand of the 
people for greater knowledge and for spiritual truth. 

General References 

Munro, History of the Middle Ages, 25-32, 55-61, 122-134, 169-183. 
Duruy, History of the Middle Ages, 235-260, 505-516. 



e. 



THE FEUDAL CHURCH 65 

Robinson, History of Western Europe, 148-186, 201-232, 303-320. 
Robinson, Readings in European History, I. 245-311, 346-398, 488- 

Bemont and Monod, Medieval Europe, 286-335, 488-514. 

Munro and Sellery (eds.), Medieval Civilisation, 129-158, 188-209, 
.06-457. 
A* Ogg, Source Book of Medieval History, 245-281, 362-417. 
)iji Bateson, Medieval England, 43-49, 194-235, 330-375. 

Adams, Civilisation During the Middle Ages, 227- 257, 392-415. 
L Thatcher, Europe in the Middle Ages, 230-335, 576-582. 

Emerton, Medieval Europe, 185-356, 541-592. 

Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, 91-120, 150-320. 

Luchaire, Social France at the Time of Philip Augustus, 37-62, 
1 <:o4-248. 

Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, 1-156, 195-266. 

Cutts, Parish Priests. 

Topics 

Life in a Monastery : Abram, English Life and Manners in the 
Later Middle Ages, 62-79; Luchaire, Social France in the Time of 
Philip Augustus, 212-248; Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars, 113- 
165. 

Canossa : Emerton, Medieval Europe, 240-257; Thatcher, Europe 
lin the Middle Age, 257-271 ; Ogg, Source Book of Medieval History, 
\261-278; Duncalf and Krey (eds.), Parallel Source Problems in 
^Medieval History, 29-94. 

1 The Organization of the Medieval Churchs Bemont and Mo- 
nod, Medieval Europe, 488-505 ; Emerton, Medieval Europe, 541-581 ; 
Bateson, Medieval England, 43-69, 330-353. 

Studies 

1. The Benedictine orders. Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the 
Middle Ages, 6-17. 

2. Saint Bernard. Hodges, Saints and Heroes, 166-181. 

3. The parish priest. Cutts, Scenes and Characters, 222-231. 

4. Clerical costume. Cutts, Scenes and Characters, 232-251. 

5. The strenuous life of a bishop. Luchaire, Social France in tie 
Time of Philip Augustus, 148-157. 

6. Conflict between Henry I of England and Thomas a Becket 
over the church courts. Bateson, Medieval England, 194-200. 

7. Use of the interdict. Pennsylvania Reprints, Vol. 4, No. 4, 
27-33. 



66 THE FEUDAL AGE 



8. Gregory VII's conception of the papal authority. Ogg, Sour 
Book of Medieval History, 261-269. 

9. The Concordat of Worms. Robinson, Readings in Europec 
History, I, 292-294. 

10. Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Hodges, Saints an 
Heroes, 199-208. 

11. The Italian kingdoms of the Normans and the church. En|JiBf 
erton, Medieval Europe, 223-229. 

12. Southern France and the religious opposition. Munro an 
Sellery (eds.), Medieval Civilization, 432-457. 

13. The orders of friars. Cutts, Scenes and Characters, 36-53. 

14. St. Dominic. Hodges, Saints and Heroes, 209-233. 

15. The lite, rule and will of Saint Francis. Ogg, Source Boo/l 
of Medieval History, 362-379. 

16. "Our Lady's Tumbler." Mason (ed.), Medieval Rotnancc 
53-66. 

17. A pageant of the Deluge. Rhys (ed.), Everyman, 27-38. 

Questions 

1. What was the difference between the Church as a political 
organization and the Church as a religious body? 

2. Name five differences between the medieval Church and our 
own present churches. 

3. Explain the difference between the different classes of clergy. 

4. Was the work of the Church more important while the people 
of western Europe were barbarians or later? 

5. Why should different methods have been used by the Church 
in the early Feudal period and in the later period? Why should the 
religious instruction of the present differ from that of the Feudal 
Age? 

6. Show the importance at different periods of the following : 
Conversion of the Franks and the Saxons; the work of the Bene- 
dictine monks in reclaiming waste lands; the Cluniac reforms for 
better life by the clergy; the healing of the sick and the aid to the 
poor by the Franciscans. 

7. What are the "sacraments?" 

8. Why should the Bishop of Rome have gained so much power; 
(1) in the form of spiritual leadership? (2) in the form of tem- 
poral power? 

9. If the Church law applied universally during the Feudal Age 
the wonderful Roman law and preserved that law as the basis of 
the systems of law on continental Europe, was not the work of the 
Church courts during the Feudal Age? 



i 



THE FEUDAL CHURCH 67 

10. Why was there any objection to the administration of civil 

aw by the Church; (i) if it freed churchmen from civil authority? 

i(2) in the later Feudal Age, when good, national, civil courts were 

stablished? 
* II. Why was it necessary for the Church to use excommunica- 
ion and the interdict? Why should it have used both more spar- 
ngly? 

12. Name and explain each of the reforms of Cluny. 
r 13. Why was the bishop "literally serving two masters?" (Sec. 

53). 
14. Which was nearer right, Henry IV or Hildebrand? 

18. Name all of the reasons that you can why the papacy was 
very powerful in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; why it de- 
clined after 1300. 

19. What was the Holy Roman Empire? What territory did it 
include; in theory? in fact? How was the emperor chosen, before 
the Golden Bull of 1356? after 1356? 

20. Should heresy have been permitted by the Church? Do you 
object to the Albigensian crusade? 

21. Compare the aims and work of Father Junipero Serra in 
California with those of St. Francis in western Europe. 

22. Why should the adoration of the Virgin have been so very 
important in the later Feudal Age? Why was its influence so 
great ? 

23. In what ways was the Church the greatest uplifting force in 
the Feudal Age? 

24. What did the Church do to protect life? to guard the weak? 
to stop warfare? to promote justice? to dispel ignorance to encour- 
age liberty of conscience? to demand higher standards of character? 
to discourage luxury, class hatred, vice and crime? to help the down- 
trodden, the sick and the oppressed? 






CHAPTER IV 



Eight eastern 

crusades 

(1CW5-1270) 



The Crusades 
as medieval 
armed pil- 
grimages. 



The age of the 
Crusades as 
the beginning 
of modern life. 



THE AGE OF THE CRUSADES (1095-1270 A. D.) 
Conditions Affecting the Crusades. 

67. Place of the Crusades in History. — The e i g h 

crusades against the infidels who had seized the Holy Sep 
ulchre of the Savior at Jerusalem cover a period of near- 
ly two centuries (1095-1270 A. D.), coinciding rather close 
ly in time with that great struggle between the empire and 
the papacy which we considered in the last chapter (sees 
49-57). The first crusade occurred in the time of Henry 
IV, not long after that dramatic scene at Canossa. The 
last crusade was undertaken but a few years after the pa- 
pacy triumphed over Frederick II. 

The crusades were distinctively medieval in purpose and 
in character. They were in a sense armed pilgrimages to 
the holiest of shrines, and pilgrimages were characteristic 
of the age. Only during medieval times could a universal 
church have organized wide-spread armed pilgrimages with 
followers from a half dozen different countries. Again, 
the crusading armies were distinctively feudal or medieval 
organizations, made up of feudal groups of knights ; yet 
they contained also a large number of common people, al- 
though the latter were pilgrims rather than soldier^. 

68. The Age of the Crusades. — On the other hand 
the crusades represented the beginning of modern life. 
They developed great fleets for carrying European troops 
and supplies. They brought the crusaders into contact with 
two civilizations, the Byzantine and the Moslem, both of 
which were much more developed than the civilization of 
western Europe. They represented that expansion move- 
ment which was characteristic of the twelfth century and 
especially of the "wonderful thirteenth century." By show- 



tnort 
k 

ill.' 

rt' ,f 



CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE CRUSADES 69 

rig the opportunities for travel and the advantages of com- 
inerce, the crusades aroused in people the desire for new 
hings. The desire for knowledge, wealth, and culture de- 
veloped so rapidly that the thirteenth century, like the fif- 
eenth, was almost a period of renaissance. 

On the one side the Crusades represent armed religious The crusades 
Mlgrimaqes. On the other they embodv discontent with f transition 

a J J from medieval 

ieudal oppression, the desire for conquest, the demand for to modem 
Pjriore business and better commercial opportunities, and times - 
:he search for those wider markets which would bring lux- 
ury and wealth. On this other side, in short, the age of 
the Crusades represents the beginnings of an economic 
revolution. 

69. The Eastern Empire After Justinian.— The seijukian 
first crusade started with a request made by the eastern the Eastern 
emperor to the pope for help against the Seijukian Turks, RomanEm ; 
These barbarians had overrun Asia Minor and were threat- f the Eastern 
ening Constantinople. It was only fair that western Europe Empire to 

western 

should help the Eastern Roman Empire in its difficulties, Europe, 
since for centuries the Eastern Empire had driven back 
the hordes of Slavs, Moslems and other enemies who 
would otherwise have attacked, the weak Teutonic king- 
doms of the "West. It had been possible to do this because 
Constantinople nad been very strongly fortified, and because 
of the well-tramed army and completely organized gov- 
ernment which the eastern emperors were usually able to 
maintain. 

Nevertheless Constantinople had been the scene of much changes in 
disorder, only 34 out of 107 emperors or associates dying pi ^ ern m " 
in their beds during the ten centuries preceding the cap- (395-1453) 
ture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The 
great territory over which the emperor Justinian had ruled 
had shrunk, in 1095, to an area but six hundred miles 
square, from Crete to the Danube, and from the Adriatic 
Sea to ancient Sardis. culture, ieam- 

70. Byzantine Civilization. — Munro makes an excel- ing , and civili " 

" t # zation in Con- 

lent summary of the better side of Byzantine Civilization, stantinopie. 



70 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



CO. 



Contact of 
Europeans 
with the 
Moslems. 



Science, art 
and civiliza- 
tion among the 
Saracens. 



bdai 

ps. 



"During the early centuries of the middle ages Constant! 
nople was the most wealthy and populous city in Kurope 
Its inhabitants were the most artistic, learned an 1 highh 
civilized people in the Christian world. They controllec 
the commerce of the .Mediterranean Sea and monopolize* 
the manufacture of many luxuries. ... In Constan 
tinople the travelers found lighted and paved streets, ex 
tensive public parks, hospitals and homes for orphans. ( )r- 
der was preserved by a w r ell organized police force; the-|o^ 
atres and circuses were maintained for the amusement oflp 
the populace. There were flourishing schools in which the iM 
scholars pursued not merely the elementary studies taught I lie 
in the West, but also those pertaining to law, medicine and|nv 
science. The nobles lived in magnificent buildings which I fa 1 
far surpassed the palaces of the western monarchs. The I 
artisans were comfortably housed, and worked together in loi 
great factories, producing the rich stuffs that were so rare 
and so highly prized in the West. In short, they found a 
civilization several hundred years in advance of the rude 
customs of Germany, France or England. 1 

71. Saracenic Civilization.— Not only was the By- 
zantine civilization much higher than that of western Eu- 
rope, but the crusaders discovered to their great surprise 
that the despised infidels, the Mohammedans, were more 
enlightened than they. In their religious zeal, however, 
they failed to appreciate the value of the Moslem civiliza- 
tion and brought home comparatively little science and 
learning from either Constantinople or Palestine. Moslem 
civilization seems to have filtered into Europe rather 
through the Moors in Spain or the Saracenic allies of Fred- 
erick II in Sicily. 

The Mohammedans', with true Semitic adaptability, bor- 
rowed learning from every possible source, chiefly the 
Egyptian Greeks, the Persians, the Hindoos and the Chin- 
ese. Their civilization and culture reached their height un- 



1 Munro, History of the Middle Ages, 95-96. 






CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE CRUSADES 71 

er the great Caliph Haroun al Raschid, with whom the 

Arabian Nights have made us acquainted. The Moham- 

ledans established great universities, one of them at Cor- 

ova in Spain being attended by large numbers of Chris- 

itjxans. Aristotle was studied with especial care and later 

•assed on to the scholars of western Europe. Great libra- 

ies were collected by the Moslem scholars. They devoted 

particular attention to mathematics, developing algebra in- 

-o a science and making use of the numerals, invented by 

Gerbert, 1 which we call Arabic. Their achievements in 

nedicine and their surgical skill contrasted strangely with 

.he dense ignorance and gross superstition of the people 

h western Europe. In manufacture they were distinguished. 

One has but to mention the fine "damask' 11 of Damascus, 

;he beautiful leather known as Morocco and the excellence 

}f Toledo blades. 

72. Beginning of Conflict between East and West, commercial 

° ° rivalry ovar 

— The Conflict between East and West which is represent- eastern trade, 
^d by the crusades showed itself in three different ways 
at the beginning. ( 1 ) There was first the commercial riv- 
alry. The Mohammedans had developed a great commerce 
which centered at Bagdad, in the Euphrates valley. The 
silks, spices, precious stones and other valuable products of 
the East were transported to Mediterranean ports, whither 
they were carried to Constantinople for distribution 
throughout the civilized Christian world, or were carried 
by the Saracens themselves to their kinsmen in Sicily and 
Spain. In order to get all of this trade that was possible 
there was intense jealousy and keen rivalry between three 
sets of people, the Saracens, the merchants of Constanti- 
nople, and the Italian cities, of which Venice was at this 
time the most prosperous. 

(2) Then there were the grievances of the pilgrims, a seijukian 

/ r , 11 i ... Turks inter- 

much truer cause of the crusades than the commercial nv- fere with pil- 
grimages 

to Jerusalem. 
1 Gerbert was a great French scholar of the tenth century. He was 

elected pope with the title of Sylvester II. 



72 



The eastern 
emperor ap- 
peals for help. 



Van-guard of 
the first 
crusade. 



THE FEUDAL AGE 









airy. The Saracens had been too much interested in tra< 
to interfere with the pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but win 
the Seljukian Turks, (1050) gained control of the Calipha: 
of Bagdad and overran Syria and Palestine, these fierce, ii« 
tolerant Turks prevented further pilgrimages and treatc im 
the pilgrims with cruelty. 

(3) The Seljukian Turks conquered the disorganize 
governments in Asia Minor and threatened Constantinopl 
itself. Having formerly hired soldiers from Normandy am 
other parts of Western Europe, the eastern emperor, Alex 
ms Comnenus, appealed to the pope for aid against the in 
fidels. He found himself embarrassed by the help of the 
westerners, for great hordes of crusaders, streaming through 
Constantinople, seemed to threaten the independence of thaJ 
city. 

The Eight Crusades (1095-1270 a. d.) 

73. The First Crusade. -The crusading movement 
started with the appeal made by Pope Urban II before a 
great assembly at Clermont in 1095. 1 Fired by his eloquence 
the nobles cried out, "God wills it! God wills it!" Thou- 
sands pledged themselves on the spot for the Crusades. 
Like wildfire the enthusiasm for a crusade spread through^ 
out France and other countries, hundreds of thousands 
wearing the red cross which was a sign of their vow to res- 
cue the holy sepulchre from the infidel. Among the most 
ardent apostles of the crusade was Peter the Hermit, who 
collected a great band of followers in northern France. 
Following Walter the Penniless, he set out with his un- 
armed motley throng, the vanguard of the first crusade. 
The journey along the Danube route was full of hardships. 
The crusaders plundered the people and the people retal- 
iated. Crossing at Constantinople into Asia Minor, they 

Gregory VII was the real originator of the Crusades, for twenty 
years earlier, he had gathered a crusading army. Trouble with 
Henry IV prevented the crusaders from leaving Italy. 



4 



THE EIGHT CRUSADES 



73 




the first 
crusade. 



i he march to 
Jerusalem and 
the capture of 
the city. 



;re able to proceed but a short distance before the Turks 
"t down the last of this unfortunate band. 
Later came the army of the knights, numbering, with The knights ot 
eir attendants, more than a half million, according to the 
j':aggerated accounts of the time. Emperor Alexius in 
arm prepared to defend his possessions, but induced most 
' the leaders to take oath that they would be his vassals. 
74. The Capture of Jerusalem.— In the spring of 
\97 the emperor and the crusaders set out, the one to re- 
gain his lost territories, the oth- 
er to secure the holy sepulchre. 
The long, hard march with its 
sieges of hostile cities took sev- 
eral years. The mutual distrust 
of the emperor and his western 
"allies," and the jealousy which 
each leader and every feuday 
band felt toward every other, 
grew from month to month. 
Finally, in. June, 1099, the cru- 
saders reached Jerusalem. After 
a siege of several weeke, with- 
out a decent supply of water 
the crusaders broke through the 
'alls, the defenders fleeing. "Our men followed, killing and 
laying even to the temple of Solomon, where the slaughter 
ras so great that our men waded in blood up to their 
nkles." 

Most of the crusaders returned home without great de- 
ty, but the leaders of the remainder quarreled over the 
ivision of the spoils. The conquered territory in Syria 
ras finally divided into four little feudal states, the largest 
nd most important of which was the Kingdom of Jerusa- 
:m. 

Large numbers of pilgrims, unarmed or in armed crusading bands, The military 
ime to Jerusalem each year. To care for the sick or needy there or ers- 
as organized an order of monks called the Hospitalers. To pro- 



Knight Templar 



The feudal 
states in 
Palestine. 



74 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Palestine and 
trade froiujt he 
first^crusade 
to the third. 



The crusade of 
the three 
kings. 



Richard and 
Saladin. 



tect pilgrims on their journey, another order was formed lat 
called the Templars from the fact that some of the founders livtl 
close by the Temple in Jerusalem. Like the Templars, who wei 
knights rather than monks, a third order was established, called tl 
Teutonic Knights. 

75. The Second Crusade. — Although comparative! 
few westerners remained in Palestine, so many pilgrin 
came that it was necessary to give them food and protec 
them on the way. Many of the permanent residents wer 
merchants, most of whom came from the thriving Italiai 
cities. There was considerable demand for western armor 
horses, and particularly grain. Vessels and caravans tool 
in return silks and cottons, spices, wines and fine glass 
ware. This trade developed somewhat before the seconc 
crusade was made in 1147, after the northernmost of the! 
little feudal states had been recaptured by the Mohamme- 
dans. The crusaders accomplished little but the Latin j 
states were strengthened by the warriors left in Palestine. 
In 1187 Jerusalem itself, however, was captured by the! 
ablest and most intelligent of the Mohammedan rulers, Sal- 
adin of Egypt. 

76. The Third Crusade.— The third crusade is the 
most interesting international expedition of the "Middle 
Ages." It was made up of three great national armies, led 
by three distinguished kings, Frederick Barbarossa of Ger- | 
many, Philip Augustus of France and Richard the Lion- 
Hearted of England. Frederick went by land, but the others 
followed the easier route by sea. In spite of the prominence 
of the leaders, or perhaps because of that prominence, they 
quarreled and interfered with each other, and, Frederick 
having died in Asia Minor, Philip returned to France, 
leaving Richard to fight Saladin. 

Richard was pre-eminently a medieval knight who revel- 
led in hand-to-hand combats and fierce fighting, but he was 
neither a general nor a statesman. Having made no head- 
way against Saladin he finally departed from Palestine, leav- 
ing Saladin in possession of Jerusalem. While traveling 



it. 






THE EIGHT CRUSADES 75 

!tJ erland through Germany in disguise, Richard was recog- 
\ed and imprisoned for nearly two years by his enemies, 
ins ended the most spectacular and romantic of the Cru- 
des. 

77. The Fourth Crusade.— Unlike the other crusades, capture of 
e fourth was an expedition against Constantinople rather B °pi e * n x ~ 
an against the Saracens. Except the Italians, the cru- 

ders expected to attack the Mohammedans, but the Vene- 

ins, under their blind and crafty aged doge, or duke, per- 

laded the others to seize the great city on the Bosporus. 

heir excuse was that the ruling emperor was a usurper ; 

leir reason, a desire for a still larger share of the trade in 

ie eastern Mediterranean. Towers having been erected 

i the decks of the ships, the attacking parties crossed on 

.dders, gained the walls, and sacked the city. Priceless 

•easures were lost, manuscripts being burned and paintings 

estroyed. 1 Scores of metal statues, some of which dated 

rom the classical period, were melted down for weapons 

nd armor. Four famous bronze horses were taken to 

r enice where they may still be seen above the portico of 

>t. Mark's Cathedral. 

: This Latin empire lasted more than 50 years (1204-1261 The Latin 

i. D.). It added nothing to the glory of Constantinople; J^ ireofthe 

i fact, it so weakened the city and empire that they were 

educed later by the Ottoman Turks, but it brought the 

Venetians an opportunity. They gained "a quarter and 

, half a quarter" of the lands of the eastern empire, chiefly 

hose along the Adriatic, the islands of the Aegean and the 

astern Mediterranean. Venice seized the trade that had 

ormerly gone through Constantinople, although, when the 

-atin empire fell, Genoa fell heir to the western trade from 

Constantinople and the Black Sea. 

78. Later Crusades.— The fifth crusade was made up The «*iidren's 

crusade. 

*Most of the old Greek manuscripts were copied under the Mace- 
Ionian emperors in the ninth and tenth centuries. Most of the 
nanuscripts that were afterward carried to western Europe were 
vritten in this period. ' 



76 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Sixth, seventh 
and eighth 
crusades. 



The Crusaders 
gain broader 
knowledge. 



;he:: 



Influence oi 
the Crusades 
on the great* 
changes oi the 
Age of the 
Crusades. 



of fanatical expeditions of tens of thousands of misguidt 
and unfortunate children (1212). Most of those froi 
France never left the country, but many of the Germa 
children were sold into slavery in the East. Like the vai 
guard of the first crusade these defenceless crusaders ha| 
paid dear for their zeal. 

Frederick II finally went on a crusade promised to th 
popes (1229), and St. Louis, Louis IX of France. (1248 
and (1270), led the last crusades against the Mohammed 
ans. In 1291 the followers of the Prophet regained the las 
stronghold of the Christians in Palestine and the Latii 
kingdoms of the East came to an end. 

Results of the Crusades. 

79. General Results. — The two centuries of the Cru 
sades saw so many important changes that we cannot tel 
which were caused by the Crusades. No event in history \f 
is due to any single cause. Every change is the result of to 
different causes working together. It would be untrue to 
maintain that the Crusades produced the great develop- 
ment in national feeling, in literature, in government and 
in business that occurred during the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries. Nevertheless the Crusades undoubtedly gave 
an impetus to these and other changes of that period. They 
were the occasion if not the cause of a great revival, a re- 
vival which was intellectual, political and economic, a re- 
vival which showed itself particularly in new national lit- 
eratures, in the breaking down of the feudal system, in the 
development of commerce. 

80. How the Crusades Helped to Produce a New 
Europe. — Nearly a million men took part in the Crusades. 
Before they went to the Holy Land, few of these armed 
pilgrims, whether knight or villein, had been outside of their ' 
country or beyond the bounds of the great feudal estate on 
which they had been born. Imagine the result when these 
ignorant men, gathered with other soldiers of their own 
nation, journeyed month after month with men of other 



RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES 77 

ationalities, viewed great cities, discovered better ways of 

dressing and of living, and learned their own ignorance by 

I ontact with courteous Byzantines and intelligent Saracens. 

tlany of the crusaders, too many, left their bones on the 

/astes of Asia Minor or in the valleys of Syria, but those 

hat returned came back with a new appreciation of the 

Vorld, with clearer ideas on government, a better knowledge 

[if warfare, and a truer conception of the narrowness of 

>heir old life. They did not bring back manuscripts or any 

aeal learning. The time was not ripe -for that. But they 

>rought back products of the East ; they created a demand 

or better foods, for luxuries and for money to get the 

hings they wanted. They had learned to bathe. They be- 

jan to wear beards. They had discovered that one name 

!vas not enough and to their given names added surnames. If 

/:hey were noble, they devised coats of arms and mottoes 

t:o distinguish them from others. Thus the Crusades 

broadened their lives and enriched their experiences. 

81. Political Results. — The Crusades destroyed a increase of 
large part of the old nobility. Hundreds of thousands of k°n g erc 
knights and nobles never returned from the East. The new 
nobility did not have the same prestige, the same influence 
or the same rights as the old. The feudal system, with the 
new nobles as leaders, was much less solid than it had been 
in the days of William the Conqueror. In France especial- 
ly the king had grown powerful. In Germany the king 
failed to grow powerful chiefly because he spent his strength 
fighting the papacy and trying to control Italy. 

Many- of the nobles sold their birthright of rights and Decline of the 

. ' . . , feudal nobility 

privileges. Iheir mess of pottage was equipment and pro- 
vision for the long journey. Their Esau either their king 
or the great towns. Many of the latter bought the right 
to govern themselves because the new trade was making 
them wealthy and the lords needed money. 

The new towns produced a new class made up of mer- Rise of the 
chants, manufacturers and professional men. To the two 



78 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Trade from 
Italy to east, 
north and 
west. 



Money and 
banking. 



Routes to the 
Eaat, Marco 
Polo and the 
China trade. 



The Mongol 
empire and 
eastern trade. 



old estates, the nobles and the clergy, we now add a th 
known in history as the tliinl estate. 

82. Commerce, Money and Banking. — Trade w i 
the East existed before the Crusades, yet the Crusades 
most created a new foreign commerce. Venice, Genoa a 
Pisa brought home the products of the Levant. Merchai 
from northern Europe came to Italy for these valual 
goods ; spices, silks, dyes and drugs, sugar, delicate drapt 
ies, and fine glassware. 1 They carried them overland 
Augsburg, Nuremberg and Vienna, or farther north 
Bruges, Bremen and Hamburg, bringing back wool fro| 
Britain, amber from the Baltic and furs from the Nort 
Vessels put out from Venice, Genoa and Marseilles for tl 
Atlantic coast towns, developing the first important tra( 
to the west. 

The Italian merchants traded the wheat, wool and othti 
products of the West for these luxuries, but this great e> 
pansion of commerce would not have been possible with 
out money. Gold and silver coins came into general us< 
In fact an international coin (the Leventine Byzant) wa 
introduced. Bankers were necessary t o keep safe th 
wealth of the merchants, to lend money for great expedi 
tions and to manage great financial enterprises. 

83. Trade Routes to the Orient. — S o m e traveller 
and merchants did not stop at Antioch and Damascus, bu 
followed the regular trade routes to Bagdad or pushed oil 
still farther by water to India or overland to China. The 
most famous of these was Marco Polo and his brothers win 
spent several years in China. On their return accounts 
were published of their travels, so that people learned aboul 
the Far East and demanded tea, silks and other products 
that "Cathay" could furnish. 

It was possible for merchants and travelers to take this 



*At this time the cultivation of buckwheat, melons, apricots, lem- 
ons, oranges and other foods was introduced, being borrowed from 
the Saracens, but these probably came through Spain and Sicily. 



RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES 79 

ong, hazardous trip across Asia, because, during the years 
that the Venetians held Constantinople (sec. 61), a great 
warrior, Genghiz Khan, and his successors had established 
a loosely organized Mongol empire from Hungary and 
Southern Russia eastward to the Pacific. One of these 
Mongol leaders offered to help Louis IX on the seventh 
crusade, but the French king would not have the help of 
one unbeliever against another. 

The eastern trade routes across Asia were closed not closing of the 
only by the breakup of the Mongol Empire, but by the cap- b^thTotto- 
ture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The man Turks 
middle route through Antioch and Bagdad had already 
been blocked and the lower route across Egypt was threat- 
ened by the advance of the Ottoman Turks soon after, so 
that new routes were sought, one around Africa by Vasco 
de Gama and another westward by Christopher Columbus. 

The Rise of the Towns. 

84. The New Commerce and the Growth of the Towns before 
Towns. — The Crusades were the opportunity of the free A . D , 
cities. There had been towns and cities before the Crusades, 

but, in southern Europe, the old Roman municipalities had 
grown pitifully small after the Germanic invasions, while in 
the north, there had been no need of towns. In the half cen- 
tury before the first Crusade, trade had begun again be- 
tween the villages of western Europe, along the rivers and 
even from country to country along the coast. To this 
new trade and the revived interest in building towns, the 
Crusades gave a great impetus. The cities of northern Italy 
grew with amazing rapidity between the first Crusade and 
the fourth. Along the Rhine and other rivers feudal vil- 
lages grew into towns, and on the northern coasts of west- 
ern Europe great cities like Bruges, Antwerp and Ham- 
burg developed as the trade grew. 

85. Struggles of the Towns for Power. — The towns The granting 
did not become free and powerful without a struggle. Many of « hart *«' 



80 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Town develop- 
ment in differ- 
ent countries. 



Classes ol 
gilds. 



Sin 
taste 

cor 
fori 



dui 



noble crusaders gave to the towns valuable privileges ftetf 1 
return for money to equip themselves and their attendan 
for the long expensive journey to the Holy Land, but as 
rule lords did not make concessions to the towns unless th< 
needed their political support. The towns wanted chart e 
so that they knew what rights they had, when paymen 
should be made, or how many troops must be furnishe 
if their lord made war. The lords often granted charter 
but, at the same time, they limited the powers that the towi 
already had. Then would ensue a long struggle to increas 
the town's privileges; to secure freedom from the lordi 
intendant, that is, his representative; to gain the right o 
holding more frequent assemblies; to reduce the tax pai( 
to the lord, or to increase the number of officials elected b) 
the town. 

In Italy the pope helped the Lombard towns against thtjp 
emperor, so that after 1176 (sec. 54) they became practic-ltb 
ally independent. The emperor, especially Frederick Bar-la 
barossa, sold privileges to the German towns in order top 
have money for his campaigns against the Lombard cities. 
In France the kings aided the towns against the more pow- 
erful nobles whom the kings were trying to control, but 
they helped the weaker nobles against their rebellions 
towns. In this way French cities never became independent 
like those of northern Italy and Germany. In England 
cities were not so large as those of the Continent, but they 
helped the king against the nobles, being rewarded by lib- 
eral charters and by admission to the parliaments which 
were called occasionally from the time of Edward I (1295). 
But they never became independent. 

86. The Management of Business Within a Town. 
— The business men of the medieval towns were organized 
into gilds or associations. The distinctively merchant gilds 
were made up of those who were engaged in trade. Those 
who made leather goods, armor, cabinets or any of the hun- 
dreds of articles manufactured in the towns belonged to 
craft gilds. There were almost as many of these gilds as 



RISE OF THE TOWNS 81 

:here were crafts, Paris having one hundred of them in the 
:welfth century and some of the small English towns al- 
most as many a little later. 

Since the market-places of the town were small, it was Fairs. 
Customary for the merchants to attend great fairs in some 
'convenient city, at which local products were exchanged 
ftfor foreign textiles, eastern spices or drugs, or necessaries 
like salt and iron. These fairs supplied a wholesale market 
'[through which the gilds could send their own products to 
the outside world. 

Only skilled workmen were admitted to the craft gilds, classes of 
'There were three classes of workers. Apprentices were boys 
who bound themselves for a period, usually seven years, 
"during which they learned the craft, working without pay. 
Not only the apprentices, but the journeymen, who were 
graduate apprentices, usually lived with the employer, but 
the journeymen received wages. When a journeyman had 
a little capital, he set up a shop of his own and became a 
master, later employing both journeymen and apprentices 
to help him. 

The gilds regulated the business of their craft. Each control by the 

1 gild had a monopoly of its business. As the members usu- 

■ ally lived in the same street or quarter of the town, it was 

1 easy to regulate the quality of goods and to prevent the 

masters from using poor stock and cheating their own 

customers. 

89. Condition of the Towns. — The medieval towns Location, waiis 
were usually built at commercial cross-roads, if possible at 
a point that was easily defended. Walls surrounded the 
town proper, although there were many houses outside of 
the gates. A high belfry overlooked the surrounding coun- 
try so that the man on watch could always ring the town 
bell, if an enemy approached. The bell was rung also at 
curfew and on those occasions when the citizens assembled 
to elect town officials or transact other business. 

As towns must be walled, the houses were close together streets, 
and the streets were no better than allevs, even the main 



82 



THE FEUDAL AGE 



Improvement 
of towns and 
citizens. 



General. 



Lombard 
League. 



Confederation 
of the Rhine. 



street of Paris being unpaved until 1182. Chimneys we 
almost unknown. Slops and refuse were frequently throw 
from the overhanging upper stories, which were so close t« 
gether that little sunlight reached the street below. Foi 
tunately pigs were allowed the freedom of the street s. f< 
they proved useful scavangers of the filth that accurm 
lated near the doorways. At night the streets were un 
lighted. Although, in time, a police squad, called th 
"watch," patrolled the streets and called the hours, no on 
ventured forth after nightfall without an armed body-guard 
Street fights were not uncommon between armed enemies 

Until the thirteenth century, townspeople were not mucl 
better off than the villeins, but as wealth and intelligena 
became more general, the streets were kept in better condi 
tion, the introduction of chimneys reduced the danger oi 
fire and the streets were kept freer of swine and encroach 
ing buildings. Fine town halls were built, especially after 
1350, and in the cities of the bishops, magnificent Gothic 
cathedrals rose, emphasizing more strongly by contrast, 
perhaps, the squalor and degradation of the average citi- 
zen. 

88. The Leagues of Cities. — The political importance 
of the cities is shown especially in the formation of the 
great leagues. The largest and most powerful of the city 
leagues, three in number, were in the Holy Roman Empire, 
where the feudal nobles still maintained their authority. 
The emperor was the overlord of the nobles and the cities 
rather than the king of the country. 

The first of these leagues was formed by the large and 
wealthy cities of the Po valley in northern Italy, and was 
called the Lombard League. It was organized to protect 
the cities from their enemies, but it helped the cities to build 
up their trade and to extend their territories. 

In the Upper Rhine Valley the cities joined together for 
protection rather than trade, since the nobles of that part 
of Germany had united in order to control the emperor and 
the cities. 



1 






AGE OF THE CRUSADES 83 

By far the largest, most powerful, and most lasting of the The H«nsa. 
leagues was that great commercial state known as the Han- 
seatic League or the Hansa. It included nearly 100 towns 

' along the northern coast of Europe from the mouth of the 
Rhine to the Gulf of Finland, and was associated with oth- 
er great commercial cities farther away like Novgorod, 
Bruges and London. In order to protect its commerce, it 

1 made commercial laws, made treaties and made war. its 
great fleets controlled for three centuries the trade of the 
northern seas and drove off pirates. The larger cities, as 
Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck, remained independent, and 
are now states of that great federation known as the Ger- 
man Empire. 

89. Summary. — The Crusades were armed religious pil- causes of the 
grimages to Palestine. They were due to the religious zeal 
of the people and to the influence of the papacy. To a less 
degree they were affected by the love of adventure and con- 
quest as well as the desire to trade. The immediate occa- 
sion of the first Crusade was the conquest of Palestine by 
the cruel Seljukian Turks, who maltreated pilgrims and 
threatened to capture Constantinople. 

The eastern crusades were eight in number, beginning in The eight east- 
1095 and ending in 1270. By far the largest was the. first, ernc ™ ad « s - 
which established four petty feudal states in Palestine. The 
most interesting was the third, in which Frederick Barba- 
rossa, Philip Augustus and Richard the Lion-Hearted pro- 
ceeded against Saladin. The fourth led to the conquest of 
Constantinople by the Venetians and allies. The rest were 
relatively unimportant. 

The Crusades coincided with important economic chang- General results 
es, of which the Crusades were a part and to which the crusades. 
Crusades gave impetus. The travel made people broader 
and the absence or death of many nobles gave opportunities 
for kings and cities to increase their power. The Crusades 
made the use of money common, and, more than all else, 
the Crusades developed the eastern trade very greatly. 



84 THE FEUDAL AGE 

The rise of Towns had declined after the "'fall'* of the western Rem- 

an empire. They began to revive soon after 1000 A. E 
and grew very rapidly during the fir.^t century of the Ag 
of the Crusades. They gained charters and gained right 
which the charters defended and protected. Thev carrie* 
on trade through trade gilds, and their craft gilds inanii 
factured many articles. The towns were small, crowded 
filthy and disorderly, but conditions improved after 130( 
A. D. To promote trade or protect one another league- 
were formed especially in the Holy Roman Empire, the mos 
famous being the Lombard League 'ind the Hansa. 

General References 
West, Modern History. 98-132. 

Munro, History of the Middle Ages, 87-121, 153-159. 
Bemont and Monod. Medieval Europe, 336-390. 
Thatcher and Schwill, Europe in the Middle Age, 336-445. 
Emertnn, Medieval Europe. JS57-397. 519-540. 
Day, History of Commerce, 31-127. 

Adam?, Civilization During the Middle Ages, 258-310. 
Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades. 
Zimmcrn The Hansa Towns. 
Oman. The Byzantine Empire. 
Gilman, The Saracens. 

Topics 

Byzantine Civilization. Munro and Sellery (eds.), Medieval 
Civilization, 212-223; Oman, The Byzantine Empire, 141-157; Foord, 
The Byzantine Empire, 397-406. 

Studies 

1. Moslem civilization. Munro, History of the Middle Ages, 
86-94. 

2. Eastern trade before the Crusades. Day, History of Com- 
merce, 79-86. 

3. Appeal of Pope Urban II at Clermont (1095). Ogg, Source 
Book of Medieval History, No. 51. 

4. Pilgrims. Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, 

157-175- 

5. Inducements offered to crusaders. Robinson, Readings in 
European History, I, 337-340. 



|*rJ 



THE FEUDAL AGE 85 

6. The capture of Jerusalem. Duncalf and Krey, Parallel Source 
Problems in Medieval History, 103-109. 
■I 7. The military orders. Cutts, Scenes and Characters, 26-35; 
Vrcher and Kingsford, The Crusaders, 169-187. 

8. The attack on Constantinople (1204). Foord, The Byzantine 
^Empire. 

9. The children's crusade. Larned (ed.), History for Ready 
Reference, I, 632-363. 

10. Heraldry. Cornish, Chivalry, 154-178. 

11. The Mongol Empire. Renouf, General History, 225-230. 

12. The medieval fair. Day, History of Commerce, 63-69. 

13. The medieval gild. Tappan, When Knights were Bold, 232- 
$246. 

14. Characteristics of town life. Abram, English Life and Man- 
ners in the Later Middle Ages, 18-30. 

Questions 

1. Distinguish between the religious and the commercial char- 
acter of the Crusades. 

2. Compare the civilizations of the Moslems, the Byzantines, the 
Crusaders and that of America today ; in regard to art, business, 
learning and moral standards. 

3. Name at least five conflicts between East and West that pre- 
ceded the Crusades. 

4. How were the crusades against the Saracens different from 
that against the Albigenses? (sec. 60). What did the first cresade 
show about the Christian spirit of the crusaders and the ability of 
the people of western Europe to cooperate? 

5. Could the crusades have taken place earlier? three centuries 
later? Explain your answer. 

6. Why was the third "the most interesting international expedi- 
tion of the Middle Ages?" 

7. Was there any advantage from the capture of Constantinople 
by the Venetians and their allies in 1204? 

8. Did the Crusades do more to produce the new Europe of the 
thirteenth century, or did the Crusades chiefly represent the desire 
for the changes which actually developed in that century? 

9. Explain the chief results of the Crusades. 

10. What is the connection between the Mongol Empire of 
Genghiz Khan and the discovery of America? 

11. What was a charter? Why did the medieval towns wish to 
have charters? 

12. Were the medieval towns better than the city slums of our 
day? Why are the towns of such importance of world history? 



CHRONOLOGICAL 



General European 

800 Crowning of Charlemagne. 
843 Treaty of Verdun. 



The Church 
(Italy) 



1054 



Invasions of barbarians. 

Final split b 
tween Roma 
Catholic Churc 
and Greek Catl 

1071 Manzikert, Victory of Turks over 1059 Cardinal bishops 
Eastern emperor. 



Development of the feudal system. 
1059 Beginning of Investiture Strife. 



1096 



1122 
1147 



First Crusade. Capture cf Jerusa- 
lem, 1099. 

Concordat of Worms. Compromise 
Second Crusade. 



11;. 



1189 Third Crusade. 

1204 Fourth Crusade. 

1206 Genghiz Khan's conquests (Mongol 
empire). 

1212 Children's Crusade. 

1214 Bouvines, "the first modern battle.' 

1236 Mongols in Europe. 

1261 End of Latin empire at Constanti- 
nople. 
1270 Last Crusade. 
1272 Marco Polo in China. 



1338 Hundred Tear's War (beginning). 
1350 Black Death. 



1073 Pope Gregory VI 

1077 Canossa. Victor 

of Gregory th 

pope over Henr. 

IV the emperoi 

over investiture 

1158 University of Bo- 
logna. 

1176 Legnano. 

1183 Peace of Con- 
stance. 

1198 Pope Innocent III 



1209 Crusade against^ 
heretics. 

1215 Franciscan and 
Dominican fri 
ars recognized. 

1250 Supremacy of pa- 
pacy over the 
empire. 



1309 Babylonian cap- 
tivity (begin- 
ning). 



Portuguese explorations 
coast of Africa. 

Invention of printing. 



1377 Great Schism (be- 
along ginning). 

1414 Council of Con- 
stance. 
1431 Council of Basle. 



1453 Capture of Constantinople and end 
of Hundred Years' War. 



The Holy Roman 
Empire 



866 



962 



Empire revived 
by Otto. 



039 Henry III. 



TABLE 



France 



Siege of Paris 
by Norsemen 



Hugh Ca pet 
founds new 
lineof French 
kings. 



827 



878 



1066 



England 



England unit- 
ed under Eg- 
bert. 

Treaty of Wed- 
more between 
Alfred and 
the Danes. 



C o n q u e st of 
England by 
Willi am of 
Normandy. 



L152 Frederick Bar- 
barossa em- 
peror. 



University 
Paris. 



1154 



1170 



of 



Henry II (of 
Anjou feudal 
over lord of 
half of 
France). 

Becket mur- 
dered by 
Henry II. 



1212. Frederick II 
emperor. 



1254-1273 Interreg- 
num (end of 
Hohenstauf- 
en line). 



1200-1213 Quarrels of Pope Inno- 
cent III with Philip Au- 
gustus and John of Eng- 
land. 

A 1 b i g e n sian 
crusade. 

LouisIX(Saint) 



1209 
1226 
1285 



1215 Magna Charta. 



1265 



Philip rV 
Fair) 



(The 



1356 



Golden Bull for 
elect ors of 
emperor. 



1338 

1346 
1356 

1360 

1415 
1431 
1438 

1453 



Beginning of 
Years' War. 

Crecy (battle). 

Poictiers (bat- 
tle). 

Peace of Bret 



1272 
1295 



1314 



De Montfort's 
Parliament. 

Edward I. 

Model parlia- 
ment. 

B a n n ockburn 



Hundred 



1358 
1360 



The Jacquierie. 

English gains 

in France. 



igny. 
1381 



1430 



Agincourt 

(battle). 
Joan of Arc 

burned. 
Pragmatic 

Sanction of 

Bourges. 
End of Hun dred 

War. 



Peasants' 
bellion. 



re- 



English losses 
in France. 



Years' 



INDEX 



Agriculture, 35-37. 
Albigensian crusade, 59. 
Alfred the Great, 16-17. 
Arbalast. the, 29. 
Armor, feudal, 30. 
Army, feudal, 21, 23, 28-29. 
Arthur, King and round table. 27 
note 



Babylonian captivity, 62. 
Banking, 78. 

Barbarossa, Frederick, 55. 
Bernard, Saint. 46. 
Bishops, the, 45. 



Cannon, medieval. 29. 
Canossa, 53-54. 
Cardinals, college of, 53. 
Castle, feudal, 25. 
Cat, the, 29. 
Catapult, the, 29. 
Cathedrals, 82. 
Charlemagne. 9-12, 21. 
Charters, town, 80 
Chivalry. 30-32. 
Church, the feudal, 43-67. 

importance of. 43-44. 

conflict of, with empire. 51-58. 

relation of, to people, 43-49, 58-62. 
Clergy, the. 44-47, 50. 
Cluny, reforms of, 50. 
Cnut, 17. 

Concordat of Worms, 53. 
Children's crusade, the, 75. 
Commerce, 74. 78-79. 
Constance, peace of, 55. 
Constance, council of, 63. 
Constantinople, 70-75. 
Crusades, the, 

general character of, 68-69, 

eight eastern, 72-76, 

results of, 76-79 



Danes in England, 16-17. 
Dominican friars, 58,59-60. 



Edward the Confessor, 17. 
Electors, imperial, 58 note. 



Empire, Roman, 9-12, 

Eastern, 69-70, 

Holy Roman of German Nation, 52. 

Conflict of, with papacy, 52-58. 
Estate, cultivation of, 35-37. 
Excommunication. 49, 53. 



Fairs, 81. 
Fealty; 23. 

in England. 18. 
Feudal aids, 24. 
Feudal dues, 23-24. 
Feudal System, 22-25, 38, 77. 
Fief, 22 

Field system, the, 35-37. 
Food, 26, 35. 

Franciscan friars, 58-60. 
Frederick I (Barbarossa). 55, 74. 
Frederick II, 56-57. 



Gerbert, 71. 

Gilds, 80-81. 

Golden bull. 58 note. 

Gregory VII, pope, 53-54. 

Hanseatic league, 83. 

Harold, 17. 

Hastings, battle of, 17. 

Henry III, of Germany, 52. 

Henry IV, of Germany, 53-54. 

Heresy, 58-59. 

Hildebrand. 52-54. 

Homage, 23. 

Hospitals, 73. 

Houses. 26-27. 34. 

Hunting, 27. 

rights. 34. 
Huss, John, 62 



Innocent III. pope, 55-56. 
Inquisition, the. 59. 
Interdict, 48. 
Investiture, 23, 51. 
Investiture, strife, 51-54. 



Jerusalem, capture of, 73. 
John, King of England, 25, 56. 
Jousting, 27-28. 



INDEX 



Knight, the, 30-32. 



Quintain, 27 note. 



Lands, holding of, 22-23, 37. 

cultivation of, 35-37. 
Latin empire, the, 75. 
Leagues, city, 82-83. 
Legnano, battle of, 55. 
Life, of people, 25-38. 
Lombard League, 55, 82. 
Lords, 22. 



"Magna Carta," 25. 

Magyar Invasions, 13. 

Manor, 36, house, 27. 

Marco Polo, 78. 

Marks, 13-14. 

Marriage of the Clergy, 50. 

"Melee," 28. 

Mersen, treaty of, 13 note. 

Milan, 55. 

Miracle plays, 61. 

"Missi Dominici," 10. 

Money, 78. 

Mongol empire, 79. 

Monks, the, 45-46. 

Moors in Spain, 70. 



Nobles, power of, 11, 21, 22, 24. 

life of, 25-32. 
Normans, 14, 15, 16. 
Norsemen, 14-16. 



Ram, the, 29. 
Rat, the, 29. 
Richard the Lion-Hearted, 74. 



Sacraments, the, 47. 
Saladin, 74. 
Salisbury Oath, 18. 
Saracens, the, 71-76. 
Saracens in Italy, 14. 
Schism, great, 63. 
Serfs, 32-33. 37. 
Sieges, feudal, 29. 
Simony, 51. 
Squire, the, 30. 
Strassburg, oaths of, 12. 



Templar, Knights, 73. 
Teutonic Knights. 74. 
Teutons, 10-11 
Third estate, 78. 
Tournaments, 27-28. 
Tower in sieges, 29. 
Towns, the, 79-83. 
Trade routes, eastern, 79. 
Truce of God, 30. 
Turks, Seljukian, 72-74. 
Ottoman, 79. 



Urban II, pope, 72. 



Otto I, of Germany, 52. 
Overlords, 17, 24. 

Page, the, 30. 
Papacy, 47-58. 62-64. 
Parliament, English, 80. 
Pastimes, 27. 35. 
Peace of God, 29-30. 
Peasant, the lot of, 32-37. 
Peter the Hermit, 72. 
Philip Augustus of France, 56, 74. 
Pope, the, position of, 47-48, 56. 
conflict of with empire, 51-58. 
Priest, the parish, 46-47. 



Vassal, 22. 

Venice, 71, 75. 

Verdun, treaty of, 12-13. 

Village, 35. 

Villeins, 32-37. 

Virgin, adoration of the, 60-61. 



Waldenses, 58-59. 
Walter the Penniless, 72. 
Warfare, feudal, 29-30. 
William the Conqueror, 18. 
Worms, Concordat of, 53. 
Wyclif, John, 62. 










THE FEUDAL AGE 



R. L. ASHLEY 



*D-1 



81 



1 






. o ° .0 








G O *o . » * A. >■ *, • «* (V 



.0' 




» ' r ^ 




^* 



^5 

.-^ ^^SmV- "**> « C •*J^(fl^>^ t Deacidl,iea usln 9 the Bookkeeper process 

O > •** Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

b 0^ ^O, Treatment Date: MAy . ^ 

.'t^..** ^ °o *'* ;^r>' PreservationTechnologies 

*S <\ *•', "^ ,V * VV0RLD LEA0ER,N PAPER PRESERVATION 

^. V v ^**<fiT*v * .<. -Jy - * "1 Thomson Pa* Drive 

<y. ,V » •CQIiEnk . ^ Cranbenv Townchir. pa ir 













111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724) 7792111 














CT 
\* .. °* 

io W "JUKI' ^v" 



♦ ,^^"fr "o K 

y o 

o * 

*A A*' 

ll»RARY BINDING \£- q" ^K&T^ * 

■—».-. %y -'MS- V* 



ST. AUGUSTINE \p- 
#St% FLA. ■> 





